Quiet Flows the Una

Quiet Flows the Una is a semiautobiographical novel about a soldier suffering from the trauma of the Bosnian War, who suddenly finds himself wandering the lost and poetic corners of his memory after being hypnotized. The author, Faruk Sehic, joined a paramilitary unit for three years. He led 150 men into battle and was present at atrocities committed by both sides. Prior to the conflict he was an aspiring poet. His experiences shadow the novel as, with Nabokovian lushness, he reconstructs his childhood in prewar Yugoslavia, visiting his Grandmother's house and meandering the idyllic banks of the river Una. In Quiet Flows the Una Sehic has successfully put into art the complexities of his own, and countless others', posttraumatic stress disorder.