From one of Bosnia’s most prominent poets and writers: spare and haunting stories and poems that were written under the horrific circumstances of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Semezdin Mehmedinovic remained a citizen of Sarajevo throughout the Serbian nationalists’ siege and was active throughout the war in the city’s resistance movement, as one of the editor’s of the magazine Phantom of Liberty. Sarajevo Blues was originally published at the end of 1992 and was the first book in the Biblioteka “egzil-abc” series, published in Ljubljana, which provided a forum for Bosnian writers and translators under siege or living in exile. Semezdin Mehmedinovic says that “writing is, finally, quite a personal thing that doesn’t make much sense unless you are practicing for the last word.” For those Bosnians emerging from the siege or still in exile, these “last words” remain intimate possessions, one of the last bastions left against the commodification of tragedy.
"Sarajevo Blues is widely considered here to be the best piece of writing to emerge from this besieged capital since Bosnia's war erupted in April 1992."—Washington Post
"A Supreme masterpiece witnessed and redeems with total detachment. I have experienced this only twice in my life: with Zoran Mušic's drawings from Dachau and Semezdin Mehmedinovic's Sarajevo Blues. This book will be a classic."—Tomaž Šalamun, The book for my brother
"Sarajevo Blues is at once a battle report and a philosophical investigation. In poems, micro-essays, and prose vignettes, Semezdin Memedinovic charts the collapse of a world with heart-breaking clarity and precision. His book conveys the same clear-eyes passion for the truth that one finds in the young Hemingway, the Hemingway of in our time."—Paul Auster, Book of Illusions
Semezdin Mehmedinovic was born in Tuzla, Bosnia in 1960 and is the author of four books. In 1993 he was cowriter and codirector, with Benjamin Filipovic, of Mizaldo, one of the first Bosnian films shot during the war. The film was presented at the Berlin Film Festival in 1994, and won the first prize at the Mediterranean Festival in Rome the following year. He, his wife, and their child left Bosnia and came to the U.S. as political refugees in 1996. His collection of poetry Nine Alexandrias is Number 56 in the City Lights Pocket Poets Series.

Sarajevo Blues

Literature & Fiction

Mehmedinović, Semezdin

Poetry

City Lights Publishers

My Heart: A Novel

Product Description 
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice"Intelligent, honest, and full of heart," My Heart is an intimate work of autobiographical fiction by one of ex-Yugoslavia's greatest writers about his family's experience as refugees from the Bosnian war—a timeless story of love, memory, and the resilience of the human spirit that "has all the qualities one might seek in a friend" (Etgar Keret, author of The Seven Goods Years).\n"Today, it seems, was the day I was meant to die." When a writer suffers a heart attack at the age of fifty, he must confront his mortality in a country that is not his native home. Confined to a hospital bed and overcome by a sense of powerlessness, he reflects on the fragility of life and finds extraordinary meaning in the quotidian. In this affecting autobiographical novel, Semezdin Mehmedinovic explores the love he and his family have for one another, strengthened by trauma; their harrowing experience of the Bosnian war, which led them to flee for the United States as refugees; eerie premonitions of Donald Trump's presidency; the life and work of a writer; and the nature of memory and grief.\nPoetically explosive and pure to the core, 
My Heart serves as a kind of mirror, reflecting our human strengths and weaknesses along with the most important issues on our minds--love and death, the present and the past, sickness and health, leaving and staying. 
 Review 
A New York Times Book Review Editors' ChoiceRefinery29, A Best New Book of the YearLiterary Hub, A Most Anticipated Book of the YearA Book Riot Must-Read Book in Translation\n"Semezdin Memedinović charts the collapse of a world with heartbreaking clarity and precision . . . conveys the same clear-eyed passion for the truth that one finds in the young Hemingway, the Hemingway of our time." —Paul Auster\n"Calm and contemplative, softened by melancholy humor and always alive to beauty . . . Throughout ' 
My Heart,' Mr. Mehmedinović takes up the exile’s perpetual investigation into memory, trying to reconcile the defining traumas of the past with the tendency of time to scrub them away: 'Remembering and forgetting stand side by side, they’re made of the same substance.' That substance, whatever it is, pulses throughout this noble and large-souled work of literature." —Sam Sacks, 
The 
Wall Street Journal\n"Though it deals with tragedy, 
My Heart is never depressing, partly because of the beauty of the language—expertly translated from the Bosnian by Celia Hawkesworth—and partly because of its depth and honesty of emotion, its intelligence and generosity of spirit, and the precision and originality of Mehmedinovic’s observations . . . [A] powerful, at once profound and charming book." ––Francine Prose, 
The New York Times Book Review\n"A tender, profound autobiographical novel that contemplates mortality, family, intimacy, and identity, 
My Heart feels particularly resonant right now, as so many of us are grappling with the frail of life, and how a sudden illness can cut it all too short at a moment's notice. Mehmedinović comes from the former Yugoslavia; he and his family became refugees to the United States during the Bosnian war, and so this novel also explores other seemingly foundational but actually quite fragile constructs: the meanings of home, of safety, and of belonging." ––Kristin Iversen, 
Refinery29, One of the Best New Books of the Year\n"The prose in this autobiographical novel is lyrical, resonant, evocative—a necessary quality for a story so rooted in the mind. (Credit must go to Celia Hawkesworth for her beautiful translation, as well.) . . . His reflections are ultimately life-affirming, lingering in memories of profound love and strength, ever hopeful about the human capacity for finding and creating meaning." —Arianna Rebolini, 
BuzzFeed\n"A moving meditation on trauma, grief, love, and what it means to mourn for people who are still alive and places that still exist, but not as they once were." ––Emily Bu

United States

Catapult

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice\n"Calm and contemplative, softened by melancholy humor and always alive to beauty . . . Throughout My Heart, Mr. Mehmedinović takes up the exile’s perpetual investigation into memory, trying to reconcile the defining traumas of the past with the tendency of time to scrub them away: “Remembering and forgetting stand side by side, they’re made of the same substance.” That substance, whatever it is, pulses throughout this noble and large-souled work of literature." —Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal\n"Though it deals with tragedy, My Heart is never depressing, partly because of the beauty of the language—expertly translated from the Bosnian by Celia Hawkesworth—and partly because of its depth and honesty of emotion, its intelligence and generosity of spirit, and the precision and originality of Mehmedinovic’s observations . . . [A] powerful, at once profound and charming book." —Francine Prose, The New York Times Book Review\n"Today, it seems, was the day I was meant to die." When a writer suffers a heart attack at the age of fifty, he must confront his mortality in a country that is not his native home. Confined to a hospital bed and overcome by a sense of powerlessness, he reflects on the fragility of life and finds extraordinary meaning in the quotidian. In this affecting autobiographical novel, Semezdin Mehmedinovic explores the love he and his family have for one another, strengthened by trauma; their harrowing experience of the Bosnian war, which led them to flee for the United States as refugees; eerie premonitions of Donald Trump's presidency; the life and work of a writer; and the nature of memory and grief.\nPoetically explosive and pure to the core, My Heart serves as a kind of mirror, reflecting our human strengths and weaknesses along with the most important issues on our minds--love and death, the present and the past, sickness and health, leaving and staying.

BRUIT DU MONDE

Me'med, crvena bandana i pahuljica

Laguna

This pocket-sized paperback is one of the twenty-four titles published for 2017 Hong Kong International Poetry Nights. The theme of IPHHK2017 is “Ancient Enmity”. IPNHK is one of the most influential international poetry events in Asia. From 22–26 November 2017, over 20 invited poets from various countries will be in Hong Kong to read their works based on the theme “Ancient Enmity.” Included in the anthology and box set, these unique works are presented with Chinese and English translations in bilingual or trilingual formats.

Functions of the Heart (International Poetry Nights in Hong Kong Series)

The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Mehmedinović, Semezdin. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Mehmedinović, Semezdin

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Mehmedinović, Semezdin. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Sarajevo Blues

My Heart: A Novel

My Heart: A Novel

Sarajevo Blues

Me'med, crvena bandana i pahuljica

Functions of the Heart (International Poetry Nights in Hong Kong Series)