Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo - Hardcover

Filipovic, Zlata

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670857246 ISBN 13: 9780670857241

Publisher: Viking, 1994

Synopsis

In a voice both innocent and wise, touchingly reminiscent of Anne Frank's, Zlata Filipovic's diary has awoken the conscience of the world. Now thirteen years old, Zlata began her diary just before her eleventh birthday, when there was peace in Sarajevo and her life was that of a bright, intelligent, carefree young girl. Her early entries describe her friends, her new skis, her family, her grades at school, her interest in joining the Madonna Fan Club. And then, on television, she sees the bombs falling on Dubrovnik. Though repelled by the sight, Zlata cannot conceive of the same thing happening in Sarajevo. When it does, the whole tone of her diary changes.
Early on, she starts an entry to "Dear Mimmy" (named after her dead goldfish): "SLAUGHTERHOUSE! MASSACRE! HORROR! CRIMES! BLOOD! SCREAMS! DESPAIR!" We see the world of a child increasingly circumscribed by the violence outside. Zlata is confined to her family's apartment, spending the nights, as the shells rain down mercilessly, in a neighbor's cellar. And the danger outside steadily invades her life. No more school. Living without water and electricity. Food in short supply. The onslaught destroys the pieces she loves, kills or injures her friends, visibly ages her parents. In one entry Zlata cries out, "War has nothing to do with humanity. War is something inhuman." In another, she thinks about killing herself. Yet, with indomitable courage and a clarity of mind well beyond her years, Zlata preserves what she can of her former existence, continuing to study piano, to find books to read, to celebrate special occasions - recording it all in the pages of this extraordinary diary.

About this title

About the Author

Zlata Filipovic was born in 1980. From 1991 to 1993 she wrote in her diary of her experiences living during the war in Sarajevo. Zlata escaped in 1993 and went to St Andrews College in Dublin, and then to Oxford University where she graduated in 2001 with a degree in Human Sciences.

From AudioFile

Eleven-year-old Zlata Filipovic describes her life in Sarajevo as the clouds of war build, advance and consume her city. The diary is a powerful and moving document and has been released in print and audio simultaneously. Dorota Puzio, a native of Poland, reads with a soft Eastern European accent and the emotional intensity that the diary requires. Her clear pronunciation helps the listener with unfamiliar names. She captures the growth Zlata experiences as she leaves her protected childhood behind and begins to live the day-to-day hardship and deprivation of a city under siege. Zlata's Diary is a poignant plea for peace and a testament to the futility and waste of war. This sensitive production allows the reader to hear a young girl who cries out for peace. L.R.S. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0670857246
• ISBN 13: 9780670857241
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 200