Bosnian American writer Aleksandar Hemon came to Chicago in 1992 for a month-long cultural exchange program and was supposed to return to Sarajevo on May 1—the same day the city came under siege. Granted asylum in the United States as a political refugee, Hemon began writing fiction. Islands, one of his first stories written in English, appeared in Best American Short Stories 1999. An acclaimed novelist and short story writer, Hemon is the author of The Question of Bruno, Nowhere Man, The Lazarus Project, and Love and Obstacles. His new book is a searing collection of autobiographical essays.