The Ministry of Pain: A Novel

By: Dubravka Ugrešic

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Synopsis: Far from home, a fractured community of Yugoslav outcasts struggle with their lives in award–winning author Dubravka Ugrešić&’s novel The Ministry of Pain. Having fled the violent breakup of Yugoslavia, Tanja Lucic is now a professor of literature at the University of Amsterdam, where she teaches a class filled with other young Yugoslav exiles, most of whom earn meager wages assembling leather and rubber S&M clothing at a sweatshop they call the &“Ministry.&” Abandoning literature, Tanja encourages her students to indulge their &“Yugonostalgia&” in essays about their personal experiences during their homeland&’s cultural and physical disintegration. But Tanja&’s act of academic rebellion incites the rage of one renegade member of her class—and pulls her dangerously close to another—which, in turn, exacerbates the tensions of a life in exile that has now begun to spiral seriously out of control. &“A shiningly weird and powerful novel. . . . [It] approaches perfection.&” —Washington Post &“Soulful, often searing. . . . This is a work that comes from the gut, one that deserves to be read.&” —New York Times Book Review &“Splendidly ambitious. . . . She is a writer to follow. A writer to be cherished.&” —Susan Sontag