Yet another novel reminds me that I haven’t always paid attention to history as it was being made in my own lifetime.  In this case, the genocide in Bosnia.

Yugoslavia was a tacked together country in Europe that existed between 1918 and 1992.  It was made up of multiple nationalities and cultures.  After World War II, it was under the heavy influence of the Soviet Union.  As the Soviet Union broke apart, so did Yugoslavia.  Many of the leaders of these nationalistic groups were arrested and executed during communist rule.

There were growing protests within the various nationalities to have independence.  The dominant nationality, the Serbs, were ruthless in putting down these independence movements, their response becoming increasingly genocidal.  In the 1980s, Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic led the repression, especially against the Bosnians.  The mostly Albanian city of Kosovo rebelled all the more.  The Slovenian and Croatian nationalities supported Kosovo and advocated greater autonomy for the various republics that made up Yugoslavia—away from Serbian control.  In 1990, armed conflict broke out between Croatian forces and Serbian.

By 1991, independent republics began to form:  Slovenia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia. 

But through the process, Serbian genocide continued under the rule of Milosevic.  

Eskens’s novel is set in 1995 in war torn Bosnia and in 2025 in Minnesota.  Hana Babic is a reclusive librarian in Minnesota in 2025 when suddenly her past life suddenly appears to interrupt her peace and safety.  She had lived for 30 years in fear that her experiences in Bosnia would follow her to her new country.

And so they do.  The novel is well written, suspenseful, and thrilling.  Hana is a complex person—a necessity after what she has lived through.  The novel brings us the whole story.  Well written and a reminder that our past is always part of us, politics is always relevant to us, and things the rest of us think are buried in history are still very much alive.