DER DUFT DES LINDENBAUMS
Ein Tagebuch aus Sarajewo

Young Adult, novelized biography
Ravensburger (2008)
192 pp

Italy: Rizzoli (2008)

THE SCENT OF THE LIME TREE
A Sarajevo Diary

"Why? They kill our souls, our souls who are only here to love. Damn you. But no, I won’t curse them, because they are also the fathers of children who want peace and happiness."

Nina is twelve when she writes this in her diary. A few days later she is killed by a grenade on her way to school. Ten years later Elvis, an old friend from school, finds a memorial plaque for Nina placed where she was killed. He decides to find out what happened, locates Nina’s family, and sees for the first time Nina’s diary, written for a certain "Vili" - none other than Elvis himself, who escaped to Germany at the outbreak of the war. The more Elvis learns about Nina, the better he understands where he comes from and the path that led to his own escape.

His narrative alternates with excerpts from Nina’s diary, which ends with an entry describing how happy she was at winning a dance competition. It was the day she was hit by a grenade fragment, only days before the ceasefire. She was one of the last of over 12,000 victims in the Bosnian capital.