Letters from Sarajevo. Voices of a Besieged City

by Anna Cataldi (Editor), Avril Bardoni (Translation)

Through this extraordinary collection of their letters to relatives and friends living outside the former Yugoslavia, we hear the moving voices of the victims of months of siege and bombardment.
These eighty letters - many of which were smuggled out at great personal risk - with their prayers, their curses, their cries for help and occasional astonishing humour, speak to us in a way no other documentary material can, describing the horror of the tragedy as it unfolds through the seasons of the year. If you have a conscience, the voices of the people of this stricken city will both shock and move you as you share their suffering and marvel at their courage and enduring spirit.
The urgency of bringing these letters to the attention of the outside world has been a race against time for Anna Cataldi, who was entrusted with them by victims's families. Once we have read them, she believes we will no longer be able to ignore the plight of this oppressed people, huddled in a ruined city, trapped in a war that is as fierce as it is forgotten by the world.

Genres: Nonfiction

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was 19 and 20 years old while this War took place, a world away from me. I have little to no recollection of the events. This book was an education. May we never forget.

Reading these letters was far from easy. One would have to have a frigid heart to not be moved or affected by the suffering of these people at the hands of their oppressors. No electricity. No heat. No water. Very little food. Money is useless. Queuing in line for hours to get bread or water rations. Scouring the city for wood to burn for fuel. Dodging bullets everywhere you went. Writing to people you know and begging them to send aid packages. Could you live like that?

Reading account after account of the Hell that people were witnessing was not an easy task. It was difficult to think that all these people were set to suffer because they trusted their government and their government betrayed them.

There are obvious parallels between the Holocaust and what happened in Sarajevo. Ethnic cleansing is the first thing that comes to mind. And it's just WRONG. Things like this aren't supposed to happen. People being shot and killed over what amounts to stupidity. Families being separated, both sides suffering. Is it worth it?

I cried while I read this because war makes no sense to me. There are no winners in armed conflicts. And this book drives that lesson home with each and every letter.

It's worth it to read, if you can find it. For teachers, especially, to use in their classrooms.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a sobering account of civil war in the modern age. Read while I was stationed in Bosnia-Hercegovina, I visited some of the locales in the book. Such a beautiful country filled with hate, nurtured for centuries. There were few good people there, but many are in this book.

[Vanessa]

Heartbreaking

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredible stories from a tragic time that should not be forgotten...yet seemingly has been by much of the West.