Bronwyn Birdsall grew up in Sydney. At the age of twenty-four, she moved to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The four years she spent in Eastern Europe provided the inspiration for her first novel, Time and Tide in Sarajevo. Her writing centres around contemporary life and finding meaning in the everyday. Bronwyn writes from her home on Bundjalung Country, in north-eastern New South Wales.
Today, Manjula is here to answer a few of our questions about Time and Tide in Sarajevo! Read on …
Please tell us about your book, Time and Tide in Sarajevo.
BB: Time and Tide in Sarajevo is a novel about Evelyn, a young Australian woman who is teaching English as a second language in Sarajevo. We follow her for a few days as she faces an impossible decision – one that puts both her teenage students’ ambitions and her friendships at risk. It’s a book about community, finding your place in the world, and the question ‘How do we find hope in a world that feels beyond repair?’ I hope it captures the warmth, humour and generosity of the citizens of Sarajevo, where I was lucky enough to live as a young person myself.
Where did the inspiration for this novel come from?
BB: The novel was primarily inspired by the years I lived in Sarajevo. People often ask why I was in Sarajevo, but to me the really interesting question is: why did I stay for so long? I think it was mostly because of the friends that I found there. At a very formative moment in my life, I met people who seemed to understand who I was. While the characters in the novel are very much fictional, the tenderness of their friendships is inspired by the warmth of my own in Sarajevo. I also like the idea of friends as a love story, a collective group who supports you in different ways, rather than the classic love arc of two people who fall in love. In some ways, this book is a tribute to all the people who have loved me just as I am.
How much of your own experience as an English teacher informed Evelyn’s journey in this novel?
BB: This novel wouldn’t exist without that experience. I think teaching showed me what can happen when you profoundly invest in the future of others. Evelyn is similar in age and background to me, but responds to the world very differently. By placing her in contexts I knew well, like a classroom or a Sunday lunch, a whole new understanding of what I experienced emerged.
People often ask why I was in Sarajevo, but to me the really interesting question is: why did I stay for so long?
Did you do any research to immerse yourself in the world of post-conflict Sarajevo?
BB: I was pretty thoroughly immersed in the four years I lived there. I felt very much at home in the city, and welcomed by my friends and students, their families and the many acquaintances I got to know. I taught a wide range of people, from six-year-olds to university professors, so I heard a lot of different perspectives, all day, every day. And I like to have a chat, so I stumbled through conversations in my stilted Bosnian with my neighbours, local shopkeepers and so on. I went to see a lot of local theatre and films too. It wasn’t research as such, it was just life – following my curiosity and accepting the generosity of the people around me. I wasn’t analysing it while I lived there, just experiencing it. Then, a few years after I returned to Australia, this story poured out of me.
What was your favourite thing about writing this novel?
BB: Getting to spend several years in the excellent company of these characters! They feel like real people to me. I think when I finally get back to Sarajevo, I’ll feel a bit sad that I won’t be visiting them too.
Can you tell us a little bit about your journey towards becoming a writer?
BB: A lot of persistence, time at my desk and life experience. I’ve written just about every day since I was at university, when I read The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I decided early on that my goal was to write things I was happy with, rather than aim for publication – which is probably why it took me a relatively long time to be published. The story of Time and Tide in Sarajevo came to me in one of those early morning writing sessions, and it was exciting enough that I just kept at it for many years, like a puzzle I wanted to solve. I also developed a lot as a writer through the programs of Byron Writers Festival, ACT Writers and Writing NSW, as well as the workshops I’ve taken with Sarah Sentilles. The novel eventually found a great home at Affirm Press, where I’ve had fantastic editorial support.
What do you love most about writing fiction?
BB: This novel was continually surprising to me as I wrote it, as strange as that may sound. It can be quite exciting when you don’t know what will happen next. In fiction, I seem to get a fresh perspective on life too.
What is the last book you read and loved?
BB: I recently read and loved both Tabitha Carvan’s This is not a book about Benedict Cumberbatch and Jessie Cole’s Desire: A Reckoning. In completely different ways, both are about loving yourself as you are, and letting yourself love what you love. Phenomenal books.
What do you hope readers will discover in Time and Tide in Sarajevo?
BB: I think I have to do my best to let any expectations go, and let the reader have their own experience in the world I’ve created. I’ve noticed my early readers have each wanted to speak to me about quite different aspects of the book – but almost all have said they now feel invested in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a genuinely delightful surprise beyond my wildest hopes.
And finally, what’s up next for you?
BB: I’m wrangling with the draft of my next novel, about the three generations of women in Sydney. While Time and Tide in Sarajevo is set over four days, this new book spans almost a century. I’m learning a lot!
Thanks Bronwyn!
—Time and Tide in Sarajevo by Bronwyn Birdsall (Affirm Press) is out July 26th, 2022.
Time and Tide in Sarajevo
Evelyn is teaching English in Sarajevo, a beautiful city still recovering decades after the long and brutal siege. Life in the city is tenuous yet welcoming, and she s surrounded by the best friends she s ever had. Dedicated to her work preparing high-schoolers for a scholarship that could change the course of their lives, Evelyn feels more herself than at home in Australia. But when the teenage son of a local hero is stabbed and it seems a cover-up will let the killer go free, Sarajevans turn out in force for protests that threaten to boil over into unrest.
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