Quiet Flows the UNA

Quiet Flows the Una is the story a man trying to overcome the personal trauma caused by the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The book covers three time periods, taking in the hero's childhood before the war, the battle lines during the war, and his attempt to continue with normal life in a post-conflict society. Through his meditative prose, Sehic attempts to reconstruct the life of a man who is bipolar in nature; being both a veteran and a poet. At times, he manages to pick up the pieces of his life, but at other times it escapes him. His memories of the recent war and the killings are "dirty and disgusting", while he views his present as humdrum and his identity feels incomplete. With the help of his memories, he uses his mind and strength to look for a way out of the maze in which he is confined, acting as both archivist and chronicler of the past - roles that allow him the opportunity to rebuild everything again. In parallel to this story, the book's passages on the city next to the river Una take on mythical and dreamlike dimensions.

Here, the novel expands into a poetic description of nature, seasons, flora and fauna, as well as childhood memories not yet tainted by all that will happen after 1992. The book is dedicated to people who believe in the power and beauty of life in the face of death and mass destruction.

About the Author

Faruk Sehic was born in 1970 in Bihac, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Until the outbreak of war in 1992, he studied veterinary medicine in Zagreb. However, the then 22-yearold voluntarily joined the army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which he led a unit of 130 men. After the war he studied literature and has gone on to create his own literary works. The collection of short stories ' Under Pressure' (Pod pritiskom, 2004) was awarded the Zoro Verlag Prize. His debut novel 'Quiet Flows the Una' (Knjiga o Uni, Buybook, 2011) received the Mesa Selimovic prize for the best novel published in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia in 2011. His most recent book is a collection of poetry entitled 'My Rivers' (Moje rijeke, Buybook, 2014). Sehic lives in Sarajevo and is a member of the Writers' Association and the PEN Centre of Bosnia & Herzegovina. He works as a columnist and journalist.