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"War, family, violence, music, love and forgiveness: Šobat weaves these human themes together in a beautifully written, unique tale spanning centuries and continents....Songs from This and That Country is a unique, moving and enthralling novel." - Historical Novel Society
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"A tale of family discord set in the context of centuries of Serbian upheavals, Gail Sidonie Šobat’s magic-infused feminist novel Songs From This and That Country is wrenching yet hopeful....a shocking, thoughtful novel about the complexities of family love, cultural pride, and forgiveness." - Foreword Reviews
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"It’s hard to imagine that a novel filled with graphic depictions of domestic violence, wartime atrocities and enduring ethnic hatred could be an uplifting page-turner. Yet that is precisely the literary acrobatic feat Gail Sidonie Šobat accomplishes in Songs From This and That Country." - Alberta Views
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“There is so much splendid storytelling and writing here....a beautiful book....[with an} unflinching depiction of war's horror and human cruetly...[a] searing and poignant account of one vividly drawn artist and her troubled family's journey through life...even an amazing, compelling fairy tale for grown-ups." – Scot Morison, writer and producer at The Company of Writers
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“Of all Šobat's narrative techniques, though, probably the most distinctive is the way in which [she] infuses elevated moments with musical terminology. In one of the most harrowing moments of the novel, for example, during which Mirjam is caught in a shelling attack, the author writes, “Mirjam recognizes her own wail on the minor third with ambulance sirens shrieking the final part of the triad....In a novel where there seems little to celebrate and a lot to grieve, Šobat chooses in the end to draw a veil, slowly, gently, over the darkest sorrows of the novel.... Careful to keep her readers sensitive to the disturbing currents running through a disturbing social reality, she nevertheless allows that songs can be redemptive." - BC Book Reviews
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"[Songs from This and That Country] hopscotches through history to track fractures left by war [and} intergenerational violence. Music permeates story of an immigrant family, reflecting [a] tale that never ends" -Prairie Books Now
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“A visceral depiction of the inhumanity of oppression, Songs From This and That Country is, at its core, an unforgettable story of the evocative resonance of one’s past.” – Don Aker, bestselling author of The First Stone
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