Around the World in 80 Books discussion

Start discussion here for The Bosnia List: A Memoir of War, Exile, and Return by Kenan Trebincevic.


About the Book (from the author's webpage: kenantrebincevic.com)

At age eleven, Kenan Trebincevic was a happy, karate-loving kid living with his family in the quiet Eastern European town of Brcko. Then, in the spring of 1992, war broke out and his friends, neighbors and teammates all turned on him. Pero - Kenan's beloved karate coach - showed up at his door with an AK-47 - screaming: "You have one hour to leave or be killed!" Kenan's only crime: he was Muslim. This poignant, searing memoir chronicles Kenan's miraculous escape from the brutal ethnic cleansing campaign that swept the former Yugoslavia. After two decades in the United States, Kenan honors his father's wish to visit their homeland, making a list of what he wants to do there. Kenan decides to confront the former next door neighbor who stole from his mother, see the concentration camp where his Dad and brother were imprisoned and stand on the grave of his first betrayer to make sure he's really dead. Back in the land of his birth, Kenan finds something more powerful - and shocking - than revenge.


About the Author

Kenan Trebincevic was born in a town called Brcko in 1980 to a Bosnian Muslim family who was exiled in the Balkan War. He came to the United States in 1993, went to college in Connecticut and became an American citizen in 2001. He works as a physical therapist in Greenwich Village and lives in Astoria Queens, amid 10,000 other former Yugoslavians. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times Op-Ed page, Esquire, The International Herald Tribune, Salon.com, on American Public radio, and in the Best American Travel Writing Anthology 2012.

Here is a link to an interview with the author by LA Review of Books: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/b...

"All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. (201)"

I liked this book much more than I thought I would. There is a very quest-like drive that appealed to me. Also, the healing that comes from his journey feels more real in the fact that its not totally completed by the end of the book. I enjoyed how his feelings evolved as he returned to face the people who had hurt (and helped) him and his family.

I really enjoyed how the author gave American equivalents to his introduction of Bosnian cultural elements and, at times, paralleled scenes/feelings to those in Americans movies; it really made it much more relatable for me. Similarly, I like how he introduced the history of the war through the dialogue his characters had while watching a documentary on the History Channel, or when they would yell at the news for not telling their side of the story.

I felt like the biggest themes revolved around making moral decisions during the worst of times and how good deeds can be more powerful in the end. He questions how a normal person could justify theft and the murder of friends and neighbors, and later realizes that even though his closest friends and mentors turned on him, there were a lot of "helpers" who did what they could for his family. He notes how the good deeds done by his family and strangers helped them survive.

I kept looking back at the dates, not believing that all of this was happening while I was alive (1990's). The way he talks about America towards the end and the opportunity and luxury he encountered here was pretty eye-opening too. Especially contrasted against post-war Bosnia.

Kristin wrote: ""All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. (201)"

I liked this book much more than I thought I would. There is a very quest-like drive that appealed to me. Also, the healing ..."

Thank you for your thoughts Kristin. I also enjoyed reading this book and learning about the Bosnian perspective of the war. Very hard to believe that a genocide happened not so long ago. I liked how the author, brother and his parents were holding close to each other in order to survive the war.