Description
Book SynopsisHow do you pick up the pieces after your life is shattered by war? How do you continue living when your country no longer exists, your language is no longer spoken and your family is divided, not just by distance but by politics too? What happens when your old identity is taken from you and a new one imposed, one that you never asked for? When Olivera Simić was seven years old, President Tito died. Old divisions re-emerged as bitter ethnic conflicts unfolded. War arrived in 1992. People were no longer Yugoslavs but Serbs, Croatians, Bosniaks. Old friends became enemies overnight. In this heartfelt account of life before, during and after the Bosnian War and the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, Simić talks of her transition from peace to war and back again. She shows how she found the determination to build a new life when the old one was irretrievable.
Trade Review"Reading Surviving Peace made me pause. Sometimes it was a page that made me stop to think, to picture, to wonder. Sometimes it was just a graphic phrase. Olivera Simić has been there: the 'there' of denying the dissolution of one's national identity, the 'there' of struggling against militarism's enticements, the 'there' of making honest postwar sense of the insensible. Surviving Peace is a feminist gift to all of us." -- Cynthia Enloe, author of "Seriously!: Investigating Crashes & Crises as If Women Mattered"
"Olivera Simićs impressive Surviving Peace made me weep while enriching my understanding of human suffering at times of conflict and post-conflict, thanks to her scholarly insights woven skilfully within 'herstory'." -- Amr Abdalla, Vice Rector 20042013, University for Peace, Costa Rica
"Surviving Peace provides greater understanding of the Balkan Wars to those who don't know much about the Bosniak, Serb and Croatian ethnicities, and some possible new perspectives to those who do. It makes a valuable contribution to ensuring we don't forget the horrors and enduring impact of war." - Joanne Shiells, Books+Publishing
