De publicatie van de pocket editie van deze New York Times bestseller is i.v.m. de nominatie voor de Orange Prize vervroegd naar juli. Ta Obreht"s first novel is drawn in equal measure from the deep well of cultural legend and the pure wonder-struck imagination of a born storyteller. The time: the present. The place: a Balkan country ravaged by civil bloodshed. Grieving for her grandfather, a young doctor struggles to determine why he left their family to die alone in a field hospital far from home. Growing convinced that her grandfather was searching for an odd character from his past - a vagabond who called himself "the deathless man" - Natalia sets out to find him as well. But the deathless man is only one part of the larger mystery of her grandfather"s final days.