Description: A darkly humorous coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the Yugoslav Wars.
As air-raid sirens become commonplace, children in an apartment building escape into a world of Barbie dolls, improvising scenarios that mirror the splintering social structure of 1990s Yugoslavia. Innocence clashes with the horrors of war and the allure of Western consumerism.
Masa Kolanovic's Underground Barbie deftly captures the power of imagination to overcome hardship, offering a sharp critique of consumer culture amidst the ruins of a socialist experiment. Discover political campaigns defined by what it means to be a "real" Croatian, a refugee ball with "disgusting" dolls, and a mass grave of Ken's mistresses. For readers of literary fiction, social satire, and war stories.
Review Quotes: "A young girl survives the Croatian War of Independence while playing dolls with her friends in Kolanovic's unsettling English-language debut . . . Complementing the narrative are childlike line-drawings that are often disturbing in their naivete . . . the juxtaposition of child's play and real-world violence is chilling. This is worth a look." --Publishers Weekly
"Charming, funny, and harrowing. Will appeal to readers of many ages, especially those who enjoy grim humor or remember the myriad adventures of their own Barbies." Starred review --Lydia Fletcher, Library Journal "Underground Barbie bears witness to a turbulent childhood in transition--the wonder and terror of it all, sustained by imagination."--Junyi Zhou, Asymptote Journal "Remarkable . . . this dark and funny novel of wartime childhood will continue to find its readers." --The Guardian "Here's a Barbie I can get behind! Masa Kolanovic's barbed tale of growing up during the Yugoslav wars of the 90s uses Barbie to play out the gendered cacophony of the nationalist purity wars. All symbolic objects are rebranded accordingly with a biting humor that limns Ugresic."--Alina Stefanescu, poet, writer, translator "Selimovic has brilliantly rendered the wonder, the mix of naive innocence with worldly wisdom, in this fabulous translation. Underground Barbie uses an ingenious premise to communicate the horror and gravity of war."--Areeb Ahmad, Full-Stop "No matter how far underground the trauma of growing up during a war gets buried, it will never go away. But the survivors still deserve a monument to their memories, and Kolanovic's novel provides a fitting one."--Cory Oldweiler, Words Without Borders