By: Luan Starova (translated by Christina E. Kramer)
© 2012
Tpb: 154 pages
Price: $24 CAD/USD
The novel is set in the late 1940’s in Skopje, Yugoslavia. This was a critical time leading to Tito’s break with Stalin. Pushed to leave mountain villages to become the new proletariat in urban factories, a flood of peasants crowd into Skopje—and with them—their goats. Suffering from hunger, Skopje’s citizens welcome the newcomers. But municipal leaders are faced with a dilemma when the central government issues an order calling for the slaughter of the country’s goat population. With food scarce, will the population hide the animals, or comply?