WORLD LITERARY ATLASBOOKS WITHOUT BORDERS · 2026
Volumain.

Discover the world.
One book at a time.

Europe · A READING GUIDE

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Mehmedinović carries the experience of the Bosnian war into an emigrant family’s daily life. This is an entry through bodily memory, tenderness and fragile intimate relationships. Andrić’s The Bridge on the Drina follows communities across centuries, while Selimović explores individual morality under power. Both also belong to wider, shared Yugoslav traditions. Šehić revisits war trauma, Avdić its nightmarish echoes, and English-language Hemon the experience of exile.

WHERE TO STARTExplore the selection ↓

Books to begin with

An editorial selection · not ranked

Edition cover: My Heart — Semezdin Mehmedinović
English edition

Semezdin Mehmedinović

My Heart

About the book

Autobiographical fiction connects a heart attack, his wife’s illness and the family’s displacement after the Bosnian war.

Original title: Me’med, crvena bandana i pahuljica

EnglishTranslation

My Heart

Catapult

Translated by Celia Hawkesworth

Edition source ↗
Edition cover: The Bridge on the Drina — Ivo Andrić
English edition

Ivo Andrić

The Bridge on the Drina

About the book

The bridge at Višegrad anchors a centuries-long account of Bosnia’s inhabitants and changing empires.

Original title: Na Drini ćuprija

EnglishTranslation

The Bridge on the Drina

Everyman’s Library

Edition source ↗
Edition cover: Death and the Dervish — Meša Selimović
English edition

Meša Selimović

Death and the Dervish

About the book

His brother’s arrest confronts a dervish with the conflict between faith, loyalty and arbitrary power.

Original title: Derviš i smrt

EnglishTranslation

Death and the Dervish

Northwestern University Press

Edition source ↗
PolishTranslation

Derwisz i śmierć

Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy

Edition source ↗
Edition cover: The Lazarus Project — Aleksandar Hemon
English edition

Aleksandar Hemon

The Lazarus Project

About the book

A Bosnian emigrant investigates a Jewish immigrant’s death in Chicago and travels across eastern Europe.

EnglishOriginal

The Lazarus Project

Riverhead

Edition source ↗
Edition cover: Quiet Flows the Una — Faruk Šehić
English edition

Faruk Šehić

Quiet Flows the Una

About the book

Memories of a river and childhood help the narrator confront the trauma of the Bosnian war.

Original title: Knjiga o Uni

EnglishTranslation

Quiet Flows the Una

Istros Books

Edition source ↗
Edition cover: Seven Terrors — Selvedin Avdić
English edition

Selvedin Avdić

Seven Terrors

About the book

A search for a missing friend leads through a nightmarish landscape of memory and postwar Bosnia.

Original title: Sedam strahova

EnglishTranslation

Seven Terrors

Istros Books

Edition source ↗

Semezdin Mehmedinović

Sarajevo Blues

About the book

Brief prose pieces and poems record besieged Sarajevo, preserving the details of individual lives against wartime anonymity.

EnglishTranslation

Sarajevo Blues

City Lights Books

Edition source ↗
Edition cover: Nowhere Man — Aleksandar Hemon
English edition

Aleksandar Hemon

Nowhere Man

About the book

Jozef Pronek, a Sarajevan in Chicago, navigates immigrant life while war overtakes his homeland.

EnglishOriginal

Nowhere Man

Pan Macmillan

Edition source ↗
Context and sources

Your next destination

← Explore the whole atlas