Publication

2004 - HarperCollinsPublishers, New York, New York (State)

Language

English

Word Count

56,500 words, Guess

Page Count

226 pages

Identifiers

and 2 more
  • LibraryThing1037738
  • Goodreads2964542

Classifications

  • DDC813/.54
  • LCCPS3564.O9148 A86 2004

Description

Ivan Dolinar is born in Tito's Yugoslavia on April Fool's Day, 1948 -- the auspicious beginning of a life that will be derailed by backfiring good intentions in a world of propaganda and paranoia. At age nineteen, an innocent prank cuts the young Croatian's budding medical career short and lands him in a notorious labor camp. Released on the eve of civil war, Ivan is drafted into the wrong army, becoming a pawn in an absurd conflict in which the rules and loyalties shift abruptly and without warning. But even in a world gone mad, one course of action remains eminently sane: survival.Told with bitingly dark humor and a deep tenderness, April Fool's Day is both a devastating political satire and a razor-sharp parody of war.

First Sentence

Ivan Dolinar was born on the first of April in 1948.

Description

"Ivan Dolinar is a man caught in the crosscurrents of senseless wars, ridiculous dictators, and the usual and unusual difficulties of just trying to get by in the Balkans. His life begins, auspiciously, on April Fool's Day, 1948. As a boy growing up in a small town in Croatia, Ivan tries to love the people's dictator, Tito, but his love is not returned. In a world of propaganda and paranoia, young Ivan quickly discovers the best of intentions can backfire. At nineteen, full of hope and ambition, he enters medical school in Nova Sad, Serbia, but his medical career is cut short by a prank, and he is sent to a notorious labor camp to dig rocks for two years. War breaks out soon after his release, and Ivan is drafted - into the wrong army. A pawn in an absurd conflict in which rules and loyalties shift unexpectedly, Ivan finds himself in a struggle simply to survive." "From the tavern to the ivory tower to the battlefields, as Ivan's fortunes rise and fall faster than one can say "Yugoslavia," a tender novel emerges. Told with dark humor ofttimes used to keep despair at bay, April Fool's Day is both a political satire and parody of war."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

Genres

  • Fiction.

Other Editions

  • April Fool's Day: a novelHarperCollinsPublishers2004-01-01

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