Where You Come From: Winner of the German Book Prize

by Sasa Stanisic

Damion Searls (Translator)

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Book cover for Where You Come From

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A powerful exploration of identity and belonging, Where You Come From is the major new novel from internationally acclaimed and bestselling author Saša Stanišic

Saša Stanišic's Where You Come From is a novel about a village where only thirteen people remain, a country that no longer exists, a shattered family that is his own. Blending autofiction, fable, and choose-your-own-adventure, Stanišic traces a family's escape during the conflict in Yugoslavia, and the years that followed as they built a life in Germany. As he explores what it means to be European today, he examines how it feels to learn a new language, to find new friends and new jobs, and to build an identity between countries and cultures.


Translated by Damion Searls, Where You Come From is about homelands, both remembered and imagined. A book that bends form and genre with wit, heart, and exceptional craftsmanship to explore questions that lie inside all of us: about language and shame, about arrival and making it just in time, about luck and death, about what role our origins and memories play in our lives.

'Wonderfully inventive and impressive.' - Guardian

  • ISBN10 1787332780
  • ISBN13 9781787332782
  • Publish Date 4 November 2021
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country GB
  • Publisher Vintage Publishing
  • Imprint Jonathan Cape Ltd
  • Format Hardcover
  • Pages 368
  • Language English