About One Book, One Community

The "One Book, One Community" program encourages the Marquette County and Northern Michigan University community to read the same book and to come together to discuss it in a variety of settings. Although dozens of similar programs have been sponsored nationwide, this is one that brings together a county and a university.

ANNOUNCING
NMU/Marquette County’s
ONE BOOK, ONE COMMUNITY
selection for 2011
The Lazarus Project
By Aleksandar Hemon

The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon is the 2011 selection for Marquette County’s One Book, One Community program. Hemon creates a work of historical fiction born from an event long shrouded in mystery: the 1908 shooting of 19-year-old Lazarus Averbuch, a Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe, by the chief of Chicago Police. The novel seamlessly weaves together Averbuch’s story with that of Vladimir Brik, the 21^st century fictional hero who is a Bosnian-American writer in Chicago.

        Brik secures a grant to work on a book about Averbuch and becomes obsessed with what happened to him and why. His research takes him and quick-witted photographer Rora, whose photos accompany the story throughout the novel, on a crazy trip through Eastern Europe. Their tour ends up being more a journey into their own pasts than a fact-finding mission. Olga Averbuch, Lazarus’ sister, shares the narrative duties as she is hunted by the police and the press. Hemon's novel is bookended by murders. It showcases his wit and writing ability in a story about how discovering our past can tell us about our true selves.

        Hemon was stranded in the United States in 1992 after war broke out in his native Sarajevo. He has adopted Chicago as his new home. He completed his first short story within three years of learning to write in English. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, The Paris Review and in two acclaimed books, The Quest for Bruno and Nowhere Man.                    

Check back in News and Events section to see the dates for the author visit, book discussions and other special events surrounding this book. Plus, check out Marquette County's One Book One Community on Facebook!

What should we read next?

E-mail your book suggestions to onebook@nmu.edu. Please include title, author and a brief description of the book and why you think it would be a good community read. We try to select books of interest, fiction or non-fiction, to a wide range of people-from age 18 to 108.