Born in Sarajevo

by Snježana Marinković

When first barricades and first gun shots occurred in the capitol of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, I was seventeen years old. It was the year 1992, and one of the worst mass killings in the history of mankind began. At that time, my family, my friends, my neighbors, and I were still unaware that we will lose all privileges related to peace. People of this country, which was called Yugoslavia, proudly holding the title of the biggest and the wealthiest Balkan country, started losing their freedom, their homes and their lives. I, as any other teen, knew about war only from movies and video games until my first encounter with those whose intention was not to act or play but to overpower, destroy and kill.

Genres: History, Memoir, Nonfiction

182 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 2011

Reviews

[James Lawless · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this absorbing memoir, the author talks about her vocation to be a writer and her struggles with her stepmother’s disapproval and through the horrors of the Serbian war. Her parents separated leaving her grandmother in loco parentis. She ran with her beloved Sasha through ‘the bullets hitting the ground like hailstones’. The crowded Sarajevo airport with people trying to get out was closed. There is a very moving account of the young Snjezana waiting in vain for her mother in her favourite dress and hair perfectly combed. It was a lonely childhood with a mother-in-law who did not like her.
There is a constant sense of impending tragedy throughout the book: she saw a hand with a ring on the TV and prayed it wasn’t her beloved grandma’s.
One learns of the war first hand here—the conflict from 92-95 with Bosnians being ‘ethnically cleansed’, of the trade sanction on Serbia to curb their intervention in Bosnia Herzegovina and the Serbs eventually yielding Sarajevo to the UN.
The author’s poetic calling shines through the prose: ‘night a trembling thread’, and the prose itself is peppered with her poems, including her award-winning Sarajevo. Her beloved park Cara Dusana was rendered naked, its beautiful trees chopped down for winter firewood. The library was bombed and a half million volumes and ancient books were destroyed. Snjezana is an example of an artist wounded into print
Sasha became the inevitable solder with the inevitable fatal outcome. She recounts her migration to Rumania and Hungary and in new cities she sees strangers selling things that once belonged to her family.
Her grandmother suffered through it all. There is a heart-wrenching account of her grandma’s half-burned dresses. She wound up in a psychiatric hospital and, when the light went from her eyes, Snjezana knew hope for her was gone.
Finally after much travail, Snezana is accepted as a refugee in the USA, and in 2008, twenty eight years after Tito’s death, Kosovo declared its independence form the Serbs.
Snjezana is a passionate writer who wants to wage peace, who believes that difference should not divide us but bring us together. She ends with the Indian legend of the girl who saves a spider’s life. The spider returned and build a web to catch all her bad dreams.

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yugoslavia is in the Balkan area of Eastern Europe, and the city of Sarajevo was a seat of culture, founded in 1450. Sitting on trade rivers and providing a crossroads between cultures, the handsome city flourished in diversity and hosted a Winter Olympics.

Snjezana - meaning Snow White in English - tells her story. She was born in Sarajevo and grew up under the Socialist rule of President Tito, who kept the populace from under the Soviet thumb. In March 1992 with Tito dead, Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence and attacked Sarajevo, the populace fracturing along fault lines of religion and ethnicity. The teenage girl was from a mixed marriage and did not know where she fit. One of her neighbours, Ines, had come here for safety from Croatia the previous year, having seen her relatives killed. Listening to this weary woman, Snjezana realised that the war could last a long time and killings could be random.

The simply told account brings home the reality of sitting amid stores of food in a house surrounded by soldiers battling gangsters. Nowhere was safe for a girl to go, and snipers waited on the road near the food shops. She had a boyfriend, and wanted to be a writer, but suddenly she was an evacuee, a refugee, a foreigner. The contrast with Czechoslovakia, undergoing a peaceful split, is immense. Destruction was evident when the survivor returned home, no longer a citizen of a divided nation.

The author explains her view of the circumstances, with the prohibition of free speech over decades eroding any way to negotiate conflict, while outside countries were unaware of tensions and unable to see atrocities. Landmines are one legacy of this appalling conflict, a lethal pollution still hidden today. Family issues and the success of the author's poetry occupy the second half of the book as the shattered survivors tried to piece their lives back together, with constant reminders of the war. Finding no place that would accept her, the author managed to get a visa to live in America and start again. Her bravery shines through this memoir as she asks us all to prefer peace to conflict. I would recommend this read, especially to older teens and anyone studying the trauma experienced by conflict survivors.

[Ricardo Ribeiro · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, today I couldn't take it anymore. At 83% (reading the Kindle version) I decided to quit this book. As some readers say, the author has a beautiful soul and writes nice words. But that doesn't make a good book. I bought it to support my eager study of Western Balkans, a region I will visit for 5 weeks after the Summer. I was expecting to learn something about the conflict in Bosnia, of course not from a historical perspective, but following a personal account. Only the author tells her own story and only her only story, which is unfolded far from the Balkans roughly since the beginning of the conflict. Most of the books is about the difficult relationship of the author with her father, her stepmother and her grandmother. As I said, too personal to make a book. By the time I quit this one, I had learn nothing about Bosnia, Sarajevo, the 90's conflict or even the life in there.

[Mary Maddox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Snjezana Marinkovic’s powerful memoir Born in Sarajevo tells two stories: (1) how the beautiful and venerable European city is destroyed by war and ethnic cleansing and (2) how the author loses her home, sees her friends killed or lost to her, and has her family torn apart in the conflict. Integrating the two narratives is a difficult obstacle, one the author hasn’t completely overcome.

Her personal story is compelling and heartbreaking. As a person of mixed heritage, she doesn’t belong with any of the warring groups. She lacks a secure place even within her family since her mother abandoned her and father remarried, and neither he nor her stepmother seems to care about her. Only her paternal grandmother, who raised her, gives her real love. The bond of affection between them is, for me, the soul of the story. It explains how the author survives so much cruelty and destruction without losing her compassion and hope.

Read more at my blog http://www.ancientchildren.com/?p=359

[Kimberly Westrope · Rating 4 out of 5]

Born In Sarajevo is a deeply personal and moving story of a young woman torn from her beloved Sarajevo, forced to flee when the war lands on her doorstep. The author shares her fears, her sadness, and the pain of her suffering, but there is also much hope in her story. She longs for peace- for herself, for her country, and for the world. The story is interspersed with poetry written by the author during these difficult times, which brings much depth to the story.

If you are looking for a history of the war or the region, this is not the book you want. The author clearly states that this is her story, and it is a very personal story of love, loss, and triumph. Beautifully done, and highly recommended.

[Amy Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful and compelling.

Snjezana, which translates to "Snow White" in English, was born in Sarjevo and she shares her story. It's a powerful recollection of survival, when the only one she could rely on to save her, was herself. My favorite line, which dictates the story, is "There is no greater pain than to recall a time of happiness in one of sorrow." Her story is remarkable, and her survival is even greater. I especially was drawn to her reading the refugee booklet about the United States, as if the dreams of all could be solved by being part of the land of the free. Snjezana learns many things through her journey and she was best to learn about herself. "Attitude determines my will and my choice, which is able to make the difference."

[Sherry Gripman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was well written, with words from the soul about the conflict in Sarajevo in the 1990's. Marinkovic demeanstrates in a vivid way what it was like to be there, to live there at the time of the conflict. Such a different reality than America. --Sherry Gripman, Author of The Perfect Marriage