Every person in the world can say they have experienced a tragedy. Whether it big or small there are events in our lives that will never leave our everyday thought. There are people who we may never be able to find the strength to forgive for bringing pain upon us. Occasions in which challenge our minds to their breaking points. “The Bosnia List: A Memoir of War, Exile, and Return” by Kenan Trebincevic is an autobiography about his personal experience of surviving the ruthless war and ethnic cleansing that broke out in his Eastern European hometown of Brcko at the young age of eleven. Not only did he have to watch his hometown get blown to nothing and constantly stress about the survival of his family, he was a young boy whose friends and teammates had turned against him. The only reasoning being that he was Muslim. After Kenan and his family were able to escape the ethnic cleansing that overtook their hometown of Yugoslavia, they arrived in the United States where they were able to begin a new life. After twenty years in the States the decision was made that Kenan and his brother were going to grant their father’s wish of returning to Brcko. With this stressful event making way Kenan produces a list of vigorous goals in which he would like to follow through. At the end of his visit to his hometown he decides to change this list to more positive dedications and to fulfill the wishes of his deceased mother. Kenan Trebincevic was a young boy during the course of a horrendous war who learned what the meaning of betrayal was too early in his life. He was a young boy trying to enjoy playing with his friends, spending time with his family, and especially getting to participate in karate. Kenan was outstanding at the sport and loved the challenge of bringing pride to his coach and father. “If I nailed this, at ten years old I’d be the youngest brown belt in my division. It was the biggest challenge of my life. One little slip could embarrass coach Pero, the brilliant black belt I’d looked up to for the last six years. I wanted to make him proud.” (Trebincevic 15) The amount of pride that he took in the sport and gratitude he shared for his coach made it extremely difficult when he experienced his first betrayal. Pero turned away from him. He began missing practices because he would be hungover or with different girls. On the weekends, Pero had been fighting in the war in Croatia and disregarded him whenever he saw Kenan. When Kenan’s father decided that he would like to return to Brcko, Kenan and his brother Eldin could not turn down his wish. Twenty years later still filled with rage towards the individuals who turned against him, Kenan started “The Bosnia List.” The second task he wrote was about standing at Pero’s grave. “Number 2: Stand at Pero’s grave. No, I crossed that out and wrote: Piss on Pero’s grave. Then I changed it back again.” (Trebincevic 70) After arriving to Bosnia and to the cemetery in which Pero had been buried, Kenan’s mind began to change.
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For Kenan, his outlet from all of the betrayal he has had cooped up inside of him for twenty years was to write The Bosnia List and complete all of the tasks on this. Through returning to his homeland with his father and brother the experiences in which he encountered were eye-opening. He learned that everyone who was involved in the war at this time whether they were Muslims or Serbians, had lost a piece of themselves. Everyone had suffered differently and had had a different way of trying to survive and keep their families safe. This trip led Kenan to forgiveness and mercy for those who had wronged him in the past. Therefore, he changed his list to more positive goals in his life. The last being to grant his mother’s wish of writing a book about what her and her family had experienced in the process of the ethnic cleansing. This book is proof that people can change and no matter what tragedies they face, with time, there will be closure and
For Kenan, his outlet from all of the betrayal he has had cooped up inside of him for twenty years was to write The Bosnia List and complete all of the tasks on this. Through returning to his homeland with his father and brother the experiences in which he encountered were eye-opening. He learned that everyone who was involved in the war at this time whether they were Muslims or Serbians, had lost a piece of themselves. Everyone had suffered differently and had had a different way of trying to survive and keep their families safe. This trip led Kenan to forgiveness and mercy for those who had wronged him in the past. Therefore, he changed his list to more positive goals in his life. The last being to grant his mother’s wish of writing a book about what her and her family had experienced in the process of the ethnic cleansing. This book is proof that people can change and no matter what tragedies they face, with time, there will be closure and