Learn about Bosnia
Bosnia is a country of old bridges, strong coffee, sharp humor and some of the best writing in Europe. This list is a path into it. Level 1 is easy and fun. Each level goes a little deeper into the history, the books and the hard parts too. Stop wherever you like. Most people who start don't stop.
Level 1: Start here
Easy, fun, about one weekend · 8 picks
Bosnia in 10 Minutes
Bosnia and Herzegovina sits where empires met.
Read the article (free)Rick Steves' Europe: Dubrovnik and Balkan Side-Trips
Twenty-five minutes on the road to Mostar, the Old Bridge and its divers. The easiest possible start.
Watch free on YouTubeNo Man's Land
Two enemy soldiers stuck in the same trench. Darkly funny, and it won the Oscar.
Watch free on Tubi (US)Fuse (Gori vatra)
A small Bosnian town scrambles to look perfect when it hears Bill Clinton is coming to visit. A comedy with a big heart. Silver Leopard at Locarno.
Watch free on FawesomeTop lista nadrealista
Sarajevo's legendary absurd comedy show. Bosnian humor at its best. Clips are on YouTube.
Scream for Me Sarajevo
Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden plays a concert in the besieged city. Proof Sarajevo never stopped living.
Rent on Apple TVThe Book of My Lives
Growing up in Sarajevo, then starting over in Chicago. Funny, warm and easy to read.
Buy the bookBosnia: A Short History
The one history book to read. Clear and not too long.
Buy the book
Level 2: Getting hooked
The bigger story, including the war · 10 picks
The Bridge on the Drina
Four hundred years of Bosnia through one bridge in Višegrad. Won Andrić the Nobel Prize.
Classic, but criticized for its portrayal of Bosnian Muslims.
Buy the bookQuo Vadis, Aida?
A UN translator tries to save her family in Srebrenica in 1995. Oscar-nominated.
Watch free on Tubi (US)The Death of Yugoslavia
How the war happened, told by the leaders themselves.
Watch free on BBC iPlayer (UK)Mostar Sevdah Reunion
Old Mostar musicians come together to play sevdah, Bosnia's soulful love songs.
The Travel Show: The New Sarajevo
A look at today's Sarajevo, a city moving past the war.
Watch free on YouTubeZlata's Diary
An 11-year-old's diary of the siege. Short and easy.
Buy the bookSafe Area Goražde
Comic-book journalism from a town surrounded during the war.
Buy the bookHow the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone
A boy from Višegrad, before and after the war.
Buy the bookGrbavica
A mother and daughter in postwar Sarajevo. Golden Bear in Berlin.
Watch free on hoopla with a library cardPeople of the Book
The story of the Sarajevo Haggadah, a manuscript Sarajevans saved twice.
Buy the book
Level 3: The rabbit hole
The classics Bosnians grow up with · 14 picks
Death and the Dervish
A dervish in Ottoman Sarajevo turns against the system that killed his brother. Often called the greatest Bosnian novel.
Buy the bookStone Sleeper (Kameni spavač)
Poems inspired by the stećci tombstones, including "Record of the Land."
Buy the bookDays and Hours (Kod amidže Idriza)
A man comes to fix his uncle's boiler and ends up fixing the family. Quiet, warm, very Bosnian.
Saraj'vo
A love letter to Sarajevo and its people, with music by Damir Imamović.
A Letter from 1920
A doctor leaves Bosnia, calling it a land of hatred. The most argued-over text about the country.
Buy it in The Damned Yard and Other StoriesWaiting for Godot in Sarajevo
Staging Beckett in the besieged city while the world looked away.
Read the essay in The New York Review (paid)Sarajevo Safari*
Allegations of foreigners who paid to shoot at Sarajevans during the siege.
*Based on allegations currently under investigation. Not yet proven.
Stream on OpenDDB (paid, English subtitles)The Badger Before the Court
A peasant puts the Austro-Hungarian court on trial over a badger.
Read the original free on WikisourceSarajevo Blues
Short prose poems written during the siege.
Buy the bookSarajevo Marlboro
Short stories from the siege.
Buy the bookLogavina Street (Besieged)
One Sarajevo street through the siege.
Buy the bookLove Thy Neighbor: A Story of War
A Washington Post reporter's account of the war in Bosnia.
Buy the bookSurviving Srebrenica
A survivor's story of the death march through the forests.
Buy the bookSarajevo: A Biography
The life story of the city.
Buy the book
Level 4: Obsessed
The founding texts and the deep cuts · 15 picks
Charter of Ban Kulin
A trade deal with Dubrovnik and the oldest state document in Bosnian. Called Bosnia's birth certificate.
Read the document (free)The Ahdnama of Fojnica
Sultan Mehmed II's charter guaranteeing the Bosnian Franciscans freedom of religion.
See the original document (free)The 1941 Muslim Resolutions
Bosniak leaders publicly condemn the persecution of Serbs and Jews under fascist rule.
Buy the book with the full texts (in Bosnian)ZAVNOBiH Resolution
Declared Bosnia not Serb, Croat or Muslim, but all three together. The basis of modern Bosnian statehood.
Read the document (free, PDF, in Bosnian)The Dayton Agreement, Annex 4
Bosnia's current constitution, and why the country works the way it does.
Read the document (free)The Fall of Srebrenica
The UN's own account of how it failed.
Read the report (free, PDF)Bosnian Chronicle
Foreign consuls and Ottoman viziers in Travnik.
Buy the bookThe Fortress
A soldier comes home to 18th-century Sarajevo.
Buy the bookSarajevo, Exodus of a City
What Sarajevo was, and what the siege tried to destroy.
Buy the bookEndgame
The fall of Srebrenica, day by day.
Buy the bookA Problem from Hell
Why the West didn't act in Bosnia.
Buy the bookThe History of Bosnia
The deeper history.
Buy the bookThe Bosnian Church
Medieval Bosnia and its mysterious church.
Buy the bookHunger and Fury
Postwar politics and why Bosnia is stuck.
Buy the bookBosnian Knight
A Srebrenica survivor turned American truck driver falls in love with medieval Bosnia.
Listen
3 picks
- Easy start: Dino Merlin, Bijelo Dugme, Zabranjeno Pušenje.
- Sevdah: Safet Isović, Himzo Polovina, Zaim Imamović.
- Modern sevdah: Damir Imamović, Amira Medunjanin.
Read with context
Often cited, but know their reputation · 2 picks
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon
A famous Yugoslav travel book with a strong pro-Serb bias.
Buy the bookThe Islamic Declaration
Often quoted out of context by both critics and supporters.
Buy the English translation
FAQ
What should I watch first to learn about Bosnia?
Rick Steves' Mostar episode, then No Man's Land and Fuse.
What is the best book to start with?
Noel Malcolm's Bosnia: A Short History. For fiction, Ivo Andrić's The Bridge on the Drina.
What is the most famous Bosnian novel?
The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andrić and Death and the Dervish by Meša Selimović.