siria's review against another edition
2.0
I'm not sure if it was me, or the translation, or the book itself, but I never really settled into Lodgers. Set in besieged Sarajevo during the 1990s war, it's narrated by the teenage Maja who records life with her family and neighbours as they try to survive the conflict. As their family home has been destroyed, they are currently living in the National Museum, of which her father is the Director. I wanted to like the novel, but much of the humour either doesn't translate (there are a number of places where the translator has just literally translated word play or puns from Serbo-Croat to English), relies on local cultural references, or consists of forced quirkiness. The narrative voice is clear, but I just didn't buy it as belonging to a teenage girl. It's not a bad book, just not one that appealed to me.
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