A survivor of the Bosnian war who channeled her experiences into a career in international law and humanitarian work, Hana decides to return to Sarajevo on a deeply personal and gripping quest—the search for the son she gave up for adoption amidst the chaos and brutality of a disintegrating nation.
Haunted by fragmented memories, Hana pieces together testimony from fellow survivors, driven by the possibility that her child may still be alive. Can he be remembered? Can he be found? And what would it mean to love him? To be loved by him?
This profoundly affecting novel explores the enduring impact of war on individual lives, the complexities of motherhood and survival, and the arduous journey of confronting a past that refuses to be forgotten. It is a story of love and war, loss, and, ultimately, redemption.
Author
Janine di Giovanni
Janine di Giovanni has reported on eighteen wars and investigated three genocides around the world. The author of eight books, she is a contributing writer for Vanity Fair and a frequent contributor to the New York Times, Washington Post, Granta, and Foreign Affairs. Her work is widely anthologized and has global impact, earning her the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Courage in Journalism Award, two Amnesty International Prizes, the Blake-Dodd Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for her lifetime body of work, the National Magazine Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and others. She is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations and currently serves as Executive Director of The Reckoning Project, a war crimes NGO. She is also a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, and has held fellowships at the Council on Foreign Relations, Yale Law School, and Johns Hopkins University.
Learn More about Janine di Giovanni