Shunted from Yugoslavia to Cuba to Greece among her Muslim mother and her Gypsy Christian father and a battery of more and less well-meaning aunts and uncles, finally making her own way to New York City, sharp-eyed, sharp-tongued Sasha can't seem to stay out of trouble.

She ditches school. She runs away. She steals a neighbor's potatoes. She makes friends with heroin addicts. She falls in love too early and, as far as her family is concerned, with the wrong kind of men. She rages against the unfairness of her mother's illness and the hypocrisies of privilege and racism in Communist societies. Most important, she tells it like it is, and finds the goodness in not so obviously good people, including herself.

In this picaresque narrative that is at once jagged and soulful, Natasha Radojcic has created a bittersweet coming-of-age story, an original immigrant song and a brave new character in fiction. Sasha is a strong and spectacular survivor — clear-eyed and intelligent, hard-living, always loving. You Don't Have to Live Here is a visceral adventure about the running-from and running-to that we somehow recognize as growing up.

"This choppy, loosely autobiographical chronicle of the nomadic life of a troubled Eastern European teen is a rather circumscribed, inward-looking follow-up to Radojcic's acclaimed 2002 debut, Homecoming. When 14-year-old Sasha gets into a fight in school and runs away, her mother insists they move from Yugoslavia to Cuba to live with her ambassador uncle. But Cuba is even more alienating than home. While her mother is busy attending state functions with Fidel Castro, Sasha, who has already been molested by a cousin, has an affair with a poor black man, scandalizing her hosts and neighbors. Branded a slut and a troublemaker, Sasha is then shuttled among family households and eventually sent to Greece to live with her indifferent father and his favorite son. She amuses herself by partying with her American schoolmates and soldiers, falls in love with a married man and picks up a drug habit. Finally, she makes her way to New York City where, after making another series of bad decisions, she is forced to confront her painful past. Flat, erratic writing mirrors Sasha's studied affectlessness perhaps too faithfully, and the story, built from a collection of scenes rather than a single linear narrative, often lacks direction. Sasha's disorienting, thoroughly contemporary international upbringing gives her self-destructive behavior an added edge of interest, but her exploits come to seem more perfunctory than shocking. Agent, Emilie Stewart at the Anne Edelstein Literary Agency. (Apr. 5)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"[A] bleakly uplifting, well-wrought tale....[T]he author's beautifully restrained and composed prose has a tactile feel, and Sasha's compelling first-person narration boosts the story above the usual sorry tale of juvenile drug-induced delinquency." Kirkus Reviews

"Intensely told....There are no pat answers by the end of Sasha's story, but here is a sense of hope and a feeling that no matter the odds, she will persevere." Bust

"This is a cold-eyed, hot-blooded novel, full of indelible small moments and without a trace of sentimentality or unearned uplift. Yet it gives an absolutely convincing account of a young woman's self-redemption. Its pitilessly sharp insights are surgeon's knives in the hands of an author with an ultimately compassionate heart and spirit." David Gates, author of Preston Falls

"Every once in a while you hold in your hands a novel that is also an entire world. From the former Yugoslavia to Manhattan's Lower East Side, from communist Havana to American-occupied Athens, Ms. Radojcic's unforgettable heroine always flies against the prevailing winds. We hold our breath, hoping that she will one day land, while also hoping that this stunningly written novel will go on forever." Gary Shteyngart, author of The Russian Debutante's Handbook

"Natasha Radojcic has fashioned an uncompromising and beautifully crafted novel out of rough and complex elements that would be daunting to a lesser novelist. Her vision is stark, her voice clear as ice and so compelling I read the book in one sitting. The redemption Ms. Radojcic chronicles does not come easily, and it resonates long afterward. She is a special writer who surely has a long career before her." Nicholas Christopher, author of Veronica

Moving from Yugoslavia to Cuba, then Greece, and finally New York City, the sharp-eyed, sharp-tongued Sasha makes her way through a labyrinth of loyalties and betrayals, sex and addiction, politics, bigotry, violence, and love. With an episodic narrative that is at once jagged and soulful, Natasha Radojcic has created a memorable new character, a strong and spectacular survivor — clear-eyed and intelligent, hard-living, always loving. You Don't Have to Live Here is a visceral, original adventure, the running-from and running-to that we somehow recognize as growing up.

Natasha Radojcic was born in Belgrade. In her early twenties, on her own, she came to New York City, earned an MFA in fiction writing from Columbia University, and stayed. She is the author of Homecoming.