Product Description

"Half-Lives" was written in an effort to better understand my own life, living in self-imposed exile in Romania, Croatia, Italy, and Hungary. The life of the expatriate has a different flavor than life at home, and truths are harder to grasp hold of in a different country. What we take for granted at home becomes something different when we're faced with cultures that see things differently, and as a result we become different. "Half-Lives" is a chapter from an ongoing project that will result in a book-length work.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #957285 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-21
• Released on: 2005-06-21
• Binding: Digital
• 21 pages

Review
Olen Steinhauer grew up in Virginia, and has since lived in Georgia, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Texas, California, Massachusetts, and New York. Outside the US, he's lived in Croatia (when it was called Yugoslavia), the Czech Republic, Italy, and now Hungary. He also spent a year in Romania on a Fulbright grant. In these places, he's worked as a dishwasher, librarian, assembly-line worker, hotel laundry worker, and as an English teacher. After earning his undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin, Olen received his MFA from Emerson College in Boston, studying with such fine writers as Gail Mazur, Christopher Tilghman and Andre Dubus III. He has published stories and poetry in various literary journals over the years. His first novel, The Bridge of Sighs, the start of a five-book series chronicling Cold War Eastern Europe, was nominated for five awards including the Edgar Award for Best American Debut, and the Anthony Award. The second book of the series, The Confession, was released in the States in March 2004, and has garnered significant critical acclaim. 36 Yalta Boulevard was published in June 2005.