New Neighbors: Bosnia
A Selection of Books and Videos about Bosnia and the Balkan Wars
Memoirs and Personal Experiences
Balkan Express by Slavenka Drakulic, 18 Stories "of the horror or war and its shattering
impact on the lives of ordinary people" (From Publishers Weekly)
A Bosnian Family (Journey Between Two Worlds Series) by Robin Landew Silverman.
for grades 4-7, part of a series for children explaining why people leave their homes.
Follows the story of a Bosnian refugee family resettled in Grand Forks, and includes a
Yugoslav folktale.
The Fixer and Other Stories by Joe Sacco. A collection of non-fiction, journalistic, short
graphic novels created by Sacco (Palistine and Safe Area Gorazde) during his time in
Bosnia. Gripping.
Good People in an Evil Time: Portraits of Complicity and Resistance in the Bosnian War
by Svetlana Broz. Shortly after the end of the war, Josip Tito's granddaughter traveled
throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina collecting stories those affected by the war, and
highlighting instances of defiance of the ideologies used to justify the war.
I Remember: Writings by Bosnian Women Refugees by Radmila Manojlovic (Editor).
Stories collected from Bosnian refugees while in refugee camps during the war.
Love Thy Neighbor: A Story of War by Peter Maass. The experience of an international
journalist stationed in Bosnia from 1992-1993.
My Childhood Under fire: a Sarajevo Diary by Nadja Halibegovich
Not My Turn to Die: Memoirs of a Broken Childhood by Savo Heleta. Memoir of a
Serbian boy in Gorazde, a predominantly Muslim city in Bosnia and the struggle he and
his family endured during the war, as well as their struggle to move forward after the
signing of the Dayton Accords in 1996.
Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia 1992-1995 by Joe Sacco. Non-fiction,
journalistic graphic novel detailing Sacco's experiences in Bosnia during the war.
The Suitcase: Refugee Voices from Bosnia and Croatia by Julie Mertus, Jasmina
Tesanovic, Habiba Metikos and Rada Boric. An anthology of over 75 stories from
women and children displaced by the war on their experiences of leaving home, their
hopes of returning, life in the refugee camps, children's stories, and the process of
starting over in a new country. Powerful primary document resource.
The Tenth Circle of Hell: A Memoir of Life and Death in Camps of Bosnia by Rezak
Hukanovic. Memoir of one man's experience in the concentration camps in Bosnia
during the war.
Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Wartime Sarajevo by Zlata Filipovic. Diary of a girl living in
Sarajevo throughout the siege from 1992-1996.
Fiction
The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric. Written by a Yugoslav writer during World War II,
the novel was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961. The novel centers around
the Mehmed Pasa Sokolovic Bridge spanning the Drina River, and explores the interreligious relations between local Muslim and Orthodox Christians.
Mirad, a Boy from Bosnia by Ad De Bont. A play about a boy's quest for his missing
family, set during the Bosnian war. Written for Young Adult reading level
S.: A Novel About the Balkans By Slavenka Drakulic, story of a women held in a rape
camp during the war in Bosnia and her resettlement.
Culture, History and Politics
At War's End: Building Peace after Civil Conflict by Roland Paris. Chapter 6: Bosnia and
Croatia: Reinforcing Ethnic Divisions. Explores the differences in the development of
reconciliation in Bosnia and Croatia, as well as the development of stability in Bosnia,
on economic, political and inter-religious levels.
The Balkans: Nationalism, War & the Great Powers, 1804-1999 by Misha Glenny.
Overview of history in the Balkans during the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Balkans: A Short History (Modern Library Chronicles) by
Mark Mazower. A concise history of the region.
Being Muslim the Bosnian Way: Identity and Community in a Central Bosnian Village by
Tone Bringa. Ethnography of relations in a village near Sarajevo. Based on six years
of fieldwork in the community.
Video:
After the War: Life post-Yugoslavia. Nine films from five different film makers from
Bosnia-Herzegovian, Serbia, the Netherlands, Peru and the United States.
Calling the Ghosts: A Story of Rape, War and Women. A 63 minute documentary by
Mandy Jacobson and Karmen Jelincic with a first person account of two women held at
the Omarska concentration camp. Film website at
http://www.balkansnet.org/mandy.html
The Death of Yugoslavia. Multi-part BBC documentary based on Laura Silber and Allan
Little's book, Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation.
A Parallel World. A 28-minute documentary film by Mira Niagolova about the aftermath
of war, shot in a refugee camp near the Kosovo-Macedonia border.
The World's Most Wanted Man. PBS Frontline documentary about Radovan Karadzic.
Much information on the genocide.
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