As Long As Sarajevo Exists [Hardcover]

Kurspahi (Author), Kemal Acc (Author), Kemal Kurspahic (Author), Colleen London (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1997 | ISBN-10: 0963058770 | ISBN-13: 978-0963058775

This is the story of Kurspahic's "three wars in Sarajevo." It is an account of an editor successfully battling with his colleagues to take control of their own newspaper during the final years of Yugoslavia. Kurspahic's memoir also enters the years of genocide in Bosnia and chronicles the resistance of a people and a newspaper to the rebirth of European fascism.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This is the dramatic story of a heroic journalistic feat. During the recent Bosnian Serb siege of Sarajevo, the city's Oslobodjenje newspaper, of which Kurspahic was editor-in-chief, hit the streets on schedule every day but one (May 14, 1992). This book is both a history of the paper dating back to the years before WWII and a personal account of getting the news out under the worst possible conditions. Beginning in April 1992 and continuing for more than three years, the Bosnian Serbs and their allies effectively bottled Sarajevo up and subjected it to regular, disastrous artillery and sniper attacks. During that time, the paper's circulation dropped from 80,000 to 3500 as enemy gunfire leveled the press building's towers and eventually demolished the entire building. Kurspahic, who came to the paper as a cub reporter at 16, not only tells how he and his beleaguered staff did it but also discusses earlier struggles: the paper's anti-Nazi past, the effort in 1990 to free it from Communist Party control, the subsequent moves to keep it independent of any nationalist faction?Croatian, Muslim, Serb. Despite all the drama, Kurspahic's story provides a level of detail that may not greatly interest general readers. Christopher Hitchens of the Nation magazine and Pulitzer Prize- winning journalist Roy Gutman contribute long and admiring introductory essays. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This remarkable book by the editor of Sarajevo's main newspaper, Oslobodjenje ("Liberation"), is a story of the publication's struggle for free expression against the assaults of Communists and nationalists and for its very survival during the city's horrific siege under Serb guns. It is also a tale of indomitable courage in the face of deprivation, destruction, and death as the paper became a metaphor of its staff's endurance and their city's ordeal. The author's commitment to the truth emerges in accounts both of Serbs who deserted to Bosnia's "Serb Republic" and of those blinded by "Muslim racism." Such values earned Kurspahic the highest awards in Western journalism, yet he finds a "sad irony" in the newspaper's achievement and his country's effective "partition" after the Dayton accords. This book nicely complements Tom Gjelten's Sarajevo Daily: A City and Its Newspaper Under Siege (LJ 2/1/95). Recommended for public and larger academic libraries.?Zachary T. Irwin, Pennsylvania State Univ.-Erie
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: Pamphleteers Pr (January 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0963058770
• ISBN-13: 978-0963058775
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,038,563 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The fight for freedom- of the press and of the people, June 21, 2000

By 

Meredith Mani (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: As Long As Sarajevo Exists (Hardcover)

I may be biased because I have worked with Kemal but I have to say that I truly enjoyed this book. as an American I never fully understood what happened in Sarajevo- why it happened or the extent of the conflict over there. After reading this book I was rather ashamed that the rest of the world did nothing. Worse, we continue to allow atrocities to be perpetuated in that corner of the world. This book remains topical. Conflicts continue to erupt in the region and anyone who wants to speak intelligently on the subject, understand the story that's not in the news or would like to read about an un-sung hero, read this book. Kemal is presently working on a new book and reading this one would be a great starter. I would read this book over and over again. Its the story of people fighting for democracy and freedom (focused on freedom of the press) and the long bloody road that lay in front of them.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading from Books on Bosnia, February 24, 2000

By 

Bosnian Institute "bosinst" (Bosnian Institute, London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: As Long As Sarajevo Exists (Hardcover)

This memoir by the editor-in-chief of Oslobodjenje from 1991 to 1995 bears unrivalled witness to the resilience and survival of an operative civil society in Sarajevo under siege. Under Kurspahi 's editorship the paper came to symbolize the resistance of Bosnia-Herzegovina and its people to genocidal aggression and to terrible deprivation, while at the same time maintaining its journalistic integrity and critical independence when to do so was hard indeed. (This short review is from "Book on Bosnia" published by The Bosnian Institute)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Truth is in Here!!!, November 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: As Long As Sarajevo Exists (Hardcover)

What struck me the most about this book was what Kurspahic wrote about Sarajevo losing its essence when it got partitioned and lost its multi-cultural character. Being a Singaporean, I wouldn't recognise my home if Malays, Indians and Chinese, and Eurasians were segregated and prevented from entering each others' "zones", risking my life whenever I did so. Singapore would just cease to be a home and I think it's devastating that we saw that happen to Bosnia. And guess what? We celebrated it as a victory of diplomacy over force! Kurspahic's is a truly inspirational book, which proved that there is always honesty, grit and principles left in the world when all else seems to have disappeared. All we need to know about the Bosnian War is in here. It has also shown that the West has a limited understanding of whatever happened and it is amazing how the majority of the press in the world is dominated by these half-lies.