The Endless Chairlift

Two front covers. Two languages. One story.

The Endless Chairlift / Beskonačna uspinjača is a bilingual memoir in a tête-bêche format: one cover opens the story in English, while the other opens it in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian. Turn the book over, and the two languages meet in the middle through a shared collection of photographs — just as two languages, two cultures, and two lives meet in one human story.

Born in Sarajevo, Ognjen Gajić lived through war, rebuilt his life as a refugee in the United States, and went on to become an intensive care physician and researcher at Mayo Clinic. Through personal, humorous, and deeply human short stories, he reflects on family, friendship, patients, loss, love, exile, gratitude, and the lifelong search for what truly matters.

Rather than offering simple answers, The Endless Chairlift invites readers to reflect on what is truly bitno — what truly matters.

This dual-language edition is especially meaningful for immigrant families from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the former Yugoslavia: for grandparents who read in naš jezik, for grandchildren who read in English, and for everyone living between languages, cultures, and memories. There are subtle differences between the two versions. Those who speak both languages may enjoy discovering why.