Roman TUNEL – Being Mirsad Ibisevic
Being Mirsad Ibisevic
“I can’t believe you still haven’t read the book when you were so excited about it! Either you’re really that busy or you were expecting something else…”
Yes, I was really looking forward to this book! Mirsad Ibisevic, Irish actor of Bosnian-Herzegovinian origin, I have been following on Facebook for a long time. I was very touched by his contributions to the Balkan war he experienced. And then there was the one entry in question that gave me goosebumps when I read it. That was last October. I was so moved that I spontaneously left a comment. It would be a pity that those words reach only his followers. They would be for the masses. Especially now since the attack on Ukraine. I wish he would write a book!
“Thank you for being the last drop in the jar”.
Shortly after that, he sent me a message. He would already be in the process of putting his experiences into a book. My comment had been the missing drop to finish his work.
I now hold his writing in my hands since 08 April with a dedication to me:
“Mirella, thank you for being the last drop in the jar to end this book.”
He wrote it in two weeks on his cell phone. down. When I read the first few pages, I had to put it aside after a few pages. I withdrew and needed rest …
“Be honest, even if there is something to complain about …”
Yes, the book is not what I expected …
“Do You exist, God, and if You do, do You ever look down?”
I didn’t expect it to disturb, touch, delight, but also make me cry so much! I did not expect that it would take my breath away and give me loss of appetite, to restless nights. I did not expect that my steps across the streets of Sarajevo would be painful in parts afterwards. The roses of Sarajevo now glow deep red, memorials in tarred streets that recall the deadly shells … I bypass them and remember the victims. 11,541 lives were wiped out in a city besieged for 1425 days. “450,000 people were locked up like in a cage …”
Listen, listen, listen …
Yes, Mirsad is right – anyone who has not experienced war cannot understand it. Not even I, who experienced the war from the outside as a teenager, which was bad enough for me. I understand now, after this book, why friends keep telling me that I cannot understand or know this. Good advice regarding war trauma I’ll leave alone. How I can help, or rather, how I can help myself? Listen, listen, listen! And encourage these people to share their experiences with us!
The book Tunnel is now such a valuable work. It is a reminder to us, but also to the EU and the UN … ” … Unfortunately, we do not live in a just world …”
“BiH is a UN member, recognized state and the Americans will not allow us to be attacked and destroyed, which is a mirror of Europe, a garden full of different flowers …”
A ‘typical’ Muslim unit …
Here is the experience written down and explains EU and UN, what they did wrong at that time and also partly continue to do wrong. Arms embargo against Bosnia and Herzegovina, which played into the hands of the enemy. About the Bosnia and Herzegovina army, which was a wonderful mixed garden of all was said: “The West never talked about the Bosnian side, but about the Muslim …” But Mirsad and his friends, a family, one for all, was “mixed”: “Team of five friends, two Catholics, two Muslims, and one Orthodox, a ‘typical’ Muslim unit, as international and Serbian media named the BiH army…”
” Maybe you will see them for the last time …”
This deliberate propaganda led Mirsad to fight for survival every day with his wife and two small daughters, to lose his best friend Dragan, to whom he also dedicated this book and who still appears to him in his dreams.
” Maybe you will see them for the last time …” – that each time he left for the front, perhaps for the last time he kissed his beloved wife and his two daughters …
“They have no fear of God and no soul …” – that he was seriously injured in the hospital for months and his wife put herself in danger every day and visited him despite the snipers.
“I can live without my leg, but not without my family” – that he should be separated from family for his recovery.
“This is not a game, here you die …” – that it would never have occurred to him that there might be a war on his doorstep.
Loud silence packed in words
And Mirsad also has the special gift of writing. It’s like looking through his eyes and witnessing everything that happens. A VIP place in his head with the best view of the cruel stage to look at a spectacle open, honest and unscrupulous to what he has experienced. Being Mirsad Ibisevic … Not involuntarily on the part of the author … He takes us on a journey to horribly real events with a few bright spots like true male friendship and an intimate love affair. It also brings us into a world of smells and sounds that rob you of your appetite and sleep. Through a loud silence, packed into words that resound loudly even when read silently.
The preface of the author of this book consists of one sentence:
“There’s nothing to tell, it needs to be read.”
Thank you, Mirsad, for the journey through your tunnel!
The book is currently available in Bosnian. Also directly from the author. To contact us click here.
Already read the novel Blank by Fedja Stukan?
