“Der Jüdische Friedhof” is the title of the German translation of the novel “The Jewish Cemetery” by Enes Karić. Since its first Bosnian edition in 2011 until today, this literary work equally attracts attention of the readers with its unusual, warm and emotional story about the experiences of a 14-year-old boy named Sadik in the besieged Sarajevo in the period 1992-1995.
As of June 6, 2016 this most widely read work by Karić is available to the readership across the German-speaking area. Author of the translation is Silvia Sladić and the publisher is “Schiler Verlag” from Berlin. Promotional literary nights, with reading and discussion, will be organized across Germany, Austria and Switzerland as of autumn this year.
According to the assessment of literary critics, “The Jewish Cemetery” is the first great literary synthesis of the fratricidal war in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1991 until 1996, which breaks down the entrenched stereotypes without the moans of suffering (M. Stojić) and which causes strong cathartic effect in readers without pathetic (E. Kazaz). This work is also interpreted as a call to the people of BiH, the present Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks, to understand and forgive after the terrifying war destruction, but also a call for European and global dialogue of culture and religions (M. Maglajac).
Author of this novel, Enes Karić, is one of the leading Bosniak Islamic theologians whose voice is heard and whose works are read far outside of the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina. His literary works and expert works are translated into English, Arabic, Albanian, Turkish, Slovenian and Czech language. His numerous essays and theological studies have been translated into German, as well as the travelogue “The Black Tulip” (Die schwarze Tulpe), Avicena, Munich 2009, and the novel “The Songs of Wild Birds” (Lieder Wilder Vögel), Schiler Verlag, Berlin 2015.
(Source: igbd.org/photo: igbd.org)