This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.
Author Sanela Ramic Jurich was born in Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1976. She moved to the United States of America in 1993. Remember Me was Sanela's first novel. Her life outside of books is devoted to her family.
Reviewed by Alice DiNizo for Readers' Favorite
Selma Jovanovic is in the eighth grade when war breaks out in Bosnia in 1992. Her mother is a Bosnian Muslim while her father is Bosnian Catholic and Selma has enjoyed a delightful young life until the Yugoslavian army attacks the Muslims and Catholics of Bosnia who oppose war and have no way of getting weapons. Selma's life begins to take a terrible turn downward when she is attacked and fondled by one of five Yugoslavian soldiers sitting behind her at a concert. Slightly older Johnny Mazur steps in to save Selma, and they are attracted to each other despite the encroachment of Milosevic, the proposed attempts to divide Bosnia between Croatia and Serbia, and the mass murders of hundreds of Bosnian Muslims. Selma's parents lose their jobs, the army confiscates their car, and instead of being sent to safety, Selma ends up in the Omarska Camp where she and other women are raped repeatedly while men prisoners are tortured and killed. Selma finds herself pregnant but cannot give up son Kennan even though his father was one of her rapists. Is there a future for a girl like Selma who has been through so very much?
"Remember Me" is a thought-provoking novel about a dark time in recent history when "ethnic cleansing" of Bosnian Muslims was carried out by psychotic mass murderer Milosevic. The characters of Selma, her parents, grandparents, neighbors and friends who lost a lovely way of life are well-created and believable. The reader will agonize over the way innocent people were killed, their homes destroyed, their surviving families get grief-stricken but somehow carry on. That Selma survives and goes on to regain her life is a tribute in novel form to a people who survived against all odds. "Sjeti Me Se", Johnny's last words to Selma, is a novel that should be widely read and remembered. Unforgettable!
