A NOVEL THAT CONFRONTS A DARK CHAPTER WITH A WOMAN OF COURAGE & HEART

A new literary release blends history, mystery and lived memory to spotlight the women who held a community together during unimaginable horror.

Amra Pajalic’s new novel Time Kneels Between Mountains doesn’t tiptoe around its subject matter.

It charges straight into one of Europe’s darkest hours: the Srebrenica genocide of 11 July 1995, when 8,372 men and boys were murdered in the largest massacre on European soil since World War II.

That brutality frames the very first scene, as a wounded man collapses while shells explode overhead:

Dropping to the ground. His arm was bleeding...‘Leave me,’ Ibrahim said, twisting his hand and pressing something into Baba’s palm.

Drawing on Pajalic’s PhD research at La Trobe University and her own Bosnian heritage, the book melds historical truth with a murder mystery structure to illuminate a chapter that remains underrepresented, misunderstood and, for survivors, still unhealed.

A TEENAGE WOMAN FORCED INTO ADULTHOOD

The novel unfolds through the eyes of Seka Torlak, a young Bosnian Muslim girl whose life swings violently from typical teenage concerns to the realities of siege, starvation and moral disintegration.

Since the war started, I hadn’t been allowed to leave at all... My parents used to tell me that the war would be over soon. They had stopped believing that.

Her world shrinks while the danger grows. Streets become minefields. Bombs fall “on purpose”, as one character bitterly notes. Seka’s terror is matched only by her disbelief at the depths of human cruelty.

WOMEN AS THE LAST DEFENCE OF HUMANITY

The novel is unflinching about the horrors endured, yet it keeps circling back to the women. Mothers, daughters, and teenagers are forced to become caregivers of the dead.

One of the most haunting scenes shows Seka’s mother carefully tending to a young girl who has been killed: Mama approached and knelt... ‘The dogs haven’t reached her, thankfully. You can go home now, Seka,’ she said softly.

These moments show the quiet, relentless heroism of the women who held their families’ dignity together while the world around them collapsed.

LOVE IN A PLACE BUILT TO BREAK IT

Amid the ruins, Pajalic threads a love story between Seka and Ramo – tender, fragile and almost unbearably human in a landscape engineered for despair.

‘If we ever see peace again, I’ll build you a house with windows that open.’ It’s a tiny promise in a burning world, and that contrast is the point.

HISTORY & FICTION COLLIDE

Real political and military figures, including Alija Izetbegović, Ratko Mladić, Naser Orić and UN commander Philippe Morillon- appear alongside fictional characters.

The blend creates a sense of lived immediacy, especially in scenes where hope is dangled then ripped away.

When UN forces promise protection, the crowd erupts in relief: ‘It means the UN won’t let anything happen to us,’ Mrs Tanović said... ‘We are saved.’ Seconds later, a shell hits the playground.

A NOVEL FOR OUR TIMES

With conflict saturating today’s headlines, Time Kneels Between Mountains lands as both a memorial and a warning. It reminds us what happens when the world looks away and what humanity is still capable of losing.

Balancing tenderness with terror, Pajalic reveals a truth that feels painfully contemporary: even in the bleakest moments, dignity, a woman's love and the urge to seek justice don’t vanish. They persist.

Time Knees Between Mountains is available wherever you buy your books.

www.pishukinpress.com