Not My Turn to Die

Author/Guide: Savo Heleta

Why a Booktrail?

1992: The story of a young boy in the middle of a war

ISBN: 978-0814401651
Genre: Autobiography/memoirs, Non-Fiction

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What you need to know before your trail

In 1992, Savo Heleta was a young Serbian boy enjoying an idyllic, peaceful childhood in Gorazde, a primarily Muslim city in Bosnia. At the age of just thirteen, Savo’s life was turned upside down as war broke out. What follows is a story of human suffering, endurance and a will to survive no matter what.

When Bosnian Serbs attacked the city, Savo and his family became objects of suspicion overnight. Their lives were threatened, they were shot at, terrorised, put in a detention camp, starved and eventually stripped of everything they owned.But after two long years Savo and his family managed to escape. And then the real transformation took place.

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Travel Guide

Gorazde, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Goražde is a city and the administrative center of Bosnian-Podrinje Canton Goražde of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

It sits on the banks of Drina river. During the Bosnian War, Goražde was one of six Bosniak enclaves surrounded and besieged by the Bosnian Serb Army. The United Nations made it a Safe Area in 1993 and this meant that the UN would deter attacks on the people within the zone. However the Serbs launched an attack, a major offensive against the town and its people. Another large attack was launched in 1995 who continued to ignore ultimatums. People died, children were killed and this is one boy, now man’s account of what that felt like to live through.

“My intent in writing this book is not only to expose what people did to my family during the war; it is also to show the way to peace. It is to show that even when you live through the nightmare that happened to me and my family, it is still possible to forgive and to reach reconciliation.
The events in this book are accurate as far as I remember them and the account of what happened to my family during the Bosnia war. But I have changed the names of the majority of people involved to protect their privacy. I know they, like me, have begun to rebuild their lives, and I don’t want to interfere with this process.”