Refugees are at the forefront of modern experience and in Ukulele Jam: Miki, a Croatian teenager, and his family escaping the Yugoslav war. Their life in a Croatian refugee camp is turned on its head when war breaks out between Croatia and Bosnia and friends face becoming enemies. Miki wants to emigrate to Sweden with his friends but his parents can’t face leaving their old life in Bosnia. Based on his own experiences, Alen Meskovic has written a novel by turns humorous and tragic. His novel is lively, poetic, raw, affecting and very funny, all the while depicting a European tragedy whose consequences are still with us today.

Its subject and its resonant style have made Ukulele Jam a European success. It has been translated into German, Croatian, Hungarian and Slovenian, and is being developed as a film in Germany, where it is also a long-running theatre production.