The Bosnia List

A Memoir of War, Exile, and Return

By: Kenan Trebinčević, Susan Shapiro

Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi

A young survivor of the Bosnian War returns to his homeland to confront the people who betrayed his family. The story behind the YA novel World in Between: Based on a True Refugee Story.

At age eleven, Kenan Trebinčević was a happy, karate-loving kid living with his family in the quiet Eastern European town of Brčko. 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.

©2014 by Kenan Trebinčević and Susan Shapiro (P)2022 by Blackstone Publishing

A must ready

This story had shattered my soul! People must not forget the evil that humans has inflicted on their humans!
We are better! We must teach our children
We can not allow for these atrocities!

A Horrifying and Beautiful Story

Thank you to Kenan Trebincevic for sharing his personal experience during the war in Bosnia and thereafter. You not only learn of the horrors of war from a child’s perspective, but also from older members of his family. The children of Bosnia during this period had their childhoods stolen from them. As an adult, Kenan learns that everything taking place in his life during the war was not as black and white as his young mind thought. His visit to Bosnia provides clarity and allows him to finally release some of the upset and anger that had been pent up for nearly 20 years. It’s an excellent book for anyone wanting to understand the war in Bosnia and the experience of war for civilians. It’s not always easy to learn about the atrocities, but important to educate ourselves to avoid senseless conflicts and unnecessary loss of life.