The Lines We Leave Behind

by Eliza Graham

The history of the Balkans has been centuries of occupation and rape by invading armies. In the twentieth century you’d hope that would change. But this war stirred up old barbarities.’

‘You know Yugoslavia, darling. It’s a place like no other. Old hatreds.

Kosovo Province, of all places, the sacred place of Serbdom.

If you laid down new memories perhaps the old ones faded.

It hurt, seeing that city pulverised, seeing Serbs, Croats and Bosnian Muslims turn against one another, seeing the dream of Branko and Ana implode.

his heartfelt desire for a Yugoslav state that didn’t allow for violence on grounds of religion or ethnicity was something I admired.

If I spoke in the language of my childhood, would it connect me with a deeper part of myself, a part less troubled by all that has happened to me?

‘Women in the Balkans can live a long time if men don’t kill them

in wars.’