War Letters of a Mother

The Tuzla-based Off-set publishing house has released the book by Prof. Dr. Nisveta Alispahić, "War Letters of a Mother," which will be promoted on Wednesday, at 6 PM, at the "Mandžić" Gallery in Tuzla, writes the Patria News Agency.

This is a unique war chronicle (1992-1995), as historical events and the everyday reality of war are described through letters that a mother writes to her daughter in exile.

In the book's foreword, Indira Kučuk Sorguč writes, among other things:

- All great war stories in the world are told through the family lens. Only on that most delicate emotional level can we feel the reality of wartime horrors. And the thread that carries the deepest emotion is the one that binds a mother to her daughter. It is precisely through this emotional framework that we have the opportunity to peek into the everyday reality of war in Tuzla. The mother, who is in Tuzla, writes letters to her daughter, who is in exile, in London. The letters are a substitute for lost touch, words, and hugs.

Writing is an expression of love. When a mother writes, it's as if she's talking to her daughter. That's why she writes at length. She writes to her about everything. She tries to convey the reality of war to her. 

(...) The doors of the Alispahić family home in Tuzla open before us. The mother, Nisveta, the author of this book, is a distinguished gynecologist, head of clinic, and university professor. The daughter, Selma Alispahić, was the youngest graduate actress in the former Yugoslavia and had already achieved several leading roles as an actress at the National Theatre Sarajevo before the war.

On the last day before the siege of Sarajevo, Selma managed to get to Tuzla, and on the last day before the corridor to Croatia was cut off, Selma, at her family's insistence, managed to get to London. For her, her refugee life began then, and for her family, their wartime uncertainty. The drama of a family that, like many others, lived a stable and fulfilling life until 1992, can be read in the letters of Prof. Dr. Nisveta Alispahić.

These letters are also more than just sentimentality, in that they bring us a war chronicle beyond the usual chronicling forms and styles, but in its original, almost conversational form, as events and phenomena are discussed in their immediate vicinity. It is hard to find a more direct entry into the scenes and circumstances of wartime and its environment than what we get through letters written with the intention of being a conversation, of conveying the picture from the whole to the detail, and of testifying to a mother's love that is so strong that it barely fits into letters and words – wrote Indira Kučuk Sorguč.

The book "War Letters of a Mother" is the largest collection of war photographs of Tuzla, as it is illustrated with 120 photographs by the renowned photojournalist Amel Emrić. The book trailer for the book was created by Prof. Dr. Selma Rizvić.