Sebastijan Pregelj’s award-winning novel, In Elvis’s Room, tells the turbulent story of Slovenian independence from the perspective of Jan, an only child growing up in Ljubljana. Jan’s life in 1980s Yugoslavia is filled with family outings, Star Wars, and good friends. But as he gets older, and the ties that have held together Yugoslavia begin to tatter, the contours of life change. These common elements of growing up take on new resonance overlapping with the experiences of all Yugoslavs as they watch the socialist order and the life they know giving way to an uncertain and very disruptive future. In Elvis’s Room confronts history—both its beauty and horror—without hiding anything, and in doing so tells a highly nuanced, emotionally-charged story about living with memories from a country that no longer exists and what it requires of individuals to carry that immense weight.