Book Review

Title: My Name Is Bosnia

Author: Madeleine Gagnon

Publisher: Talonbooks (www.talonbooks.com)

Year Released: 2006

Pages: 256

ISBN-10 0-88922-542-7

ISBN-13 978-0-88922-542-8

CDN $19.95/US $19.95 

3 ½ Stars 

Reviewed By: Kindah Mardam Bey 

My Name Is Bosnia is the fictional story of Sabaheta (who changes her name to Bosnia), she is a Muslim girl caught up in the Bosnian war from 1992-1995. As a young girl, she has lost her mother to insanity and her father to the death toll of war. We meet Bosnia as her father has just died and she is left abandoned in a forest to fend for herself, surrounded by a war-torn homeland. Bosnia has joined the guerrilla fighters with her father and fought like a man would, but now she is at a loss as her father is gone, and her brother is missing.  

Bosnia returns to Sarajevo and joins with two friends from before the war to sustain life in a decrepit building as the city crumbles around them. A chance meeting with Adem, a friend turned soldier, finds Bosnia in a state of grace and distress as she can both manage to love again, but fears losing everything for a second time. 

The novel follows Bosnia’s journey, escaping from her country and living in France, her travels with friends and her constant sense of nomadic behaviour forced into her life. Eventually Bosnia and Adem reside in Montreal, Canada and seek to establish a new life in a new country. 

Bosnia is a veracious reader and enthusiast for learning. Her greatest sadness during the war is having to burn books to have a fire, in order to survive. Along with Bosnia’s spiritual, emotional and physical journey, author Madeleine Gagnon shows Bosnia’s love of learning and how that has helped her grow as a person. Her interactions with people during and after the war also play a significant part in her growth.  

My Name Is Bosnia is a fast-paced, deeply moving story. I did however, find the style of writing somewhat jarring and even dispassionate at times. I wandered if this was a flaw in translation or the story itself. I feel this book is about a subject matter not discussed and begs for a much needed dialogue about the Bosnian war, but the idea of the story only took the reader so far, and the writing style didn’t take the reader far enough. My Name Is Bosnia was a bittersweet read for me, as I could see its potential and yet watched it unfulfilled.