Set in Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, Michigan, Marko Sijanœs explosive debut novel, Mongrel, mixes tragedy, black comedy and pathos in its five chapters, each narrated by a different youth, each of whom tilts closer toward an abyss of violence. Their inextricably linked stories span twelve manic hours on June 10, 1999, the last year of the 20th century and the day the United States ends its seventy-eight-day bombing of Serbia. The battering of a small, weak nation by the worldœs uncontested superpower mirrors a lesson that develops among Sera, Gus, Sophie, Milan and Gunther: that exploitation may be the most basic feature of human intercourse. Mongrel explores the possibility that Canadian multiculturalism is not the rosy miracle so many believe it to be; an impatient, confused and angry monster may be lurking in its underbelly, itching to burst out.

Marko Sijan co-wrote a script for a short film entitled "Eva meets Felix", which premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 1999. His poetry, fiction and non-fiction have appeared in Maisonneuve, Canadian Notes&Queries, Branch and Encore magazines andon the Parliamentary Poet Laureate website. Marko lives in Montreal.