"I was born in Zenica in what was then Yugoslavia. As a student at the University of Sarajevo, engaged to the love of my life, and settling into our home together, my life was going perfectly. As the first shots of the war in the former-Yugoslavia rang out, I had no idea just how much everything in my world would be turned around. Storytelling has always been part of who I am-first in my native Croatian, and now speaking and writing in my adopted English.

This book is the story of my family's escape from Sarajevo, a fleeting solace in my hometown of Zenica, then through Serbia, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and finally into Canada. Every step of the way the frontlines followed us, minefields surrounded us, militiamen and bureaucrats threatened us, and safety eluded us. To me this book is about hope. A hope that even in the chaos of it all there are safe havens to be found, love to be shared, and the chance at a better tomorrow. This book is about the humanity that keeps me sane and the empathy and friendship that binds us in the darkest of places. More deeply, it is about the call to see past our differences and embrace our shared family in the universal siblinghood of humanity."

Nikolina