My Heart

Author: Semezdin Mehmedinović 

First a little background on the author. Semezdin Mehmedinovic is an acclaimed Bosnian poet and author who is known for Sarajevo Blues, a book of poetry that he published during the Bosnian War. After the War he emigrated to the US and now lives in the Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C.

The book is an autobiography (almost) of his keen observations of life in a foreign country — in this case, the US — when you go through some serious, life-threatening illness. Semezdin power of observation and his clear prose cuts through like a knife in butter. There were many times where I had to stop and say “wow, I never thought of it this way. He is absolutely right”.

I read the book thinking it was an autobiography, but noticed that the title has “a novel” clearly printed on it. This made me look into the genre and found that this falls into the category of autofiction. It’s a novel whose characters are real and many of the scenes are drawn from real life. However, it frees the author to create the scenes and settings to something that provides the most narrative effect. Semezdin has done a marvelous job of entertaining and educating us with his reflections on life and life-changing events in a foreign country.