Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Wartime Sarajevo

Zlata’s mother and auntie Ivanka decide to take the job offer in Holland, and though Zlata protests, she also admits that she can barely stand to stay in Sarajevo. Her mother works to get the necessary paperwork together. Meanwhile, Maja and Bojana prepare to leave for Austria.

More and more people leave Sarajevo, including prominent citizens, and the family laments the loss of those who made the city special. Her parents’ friends leave as frequently as Zlata’s, and when the power comes on, her father goes to chop wood, injuring himself because his sadness distracted him.  

After Bojana and Maja leave, Zlata writes that the politicians seem content to let those still in the city suffer. She confesses that she does not understand politics, only that people are being labeled as Serbs, Croats, and Muslims and forcibly separated from one another. She explains that among her friends and family, everyone has always mixed together, and no one has ever wondered who was Serb, Croat, or Muslim. To subject people to war to divide and label them makes no sense.

In late November, Zlata writes that she can hear saws cutting down the trees in the park. She feels sad knowing that the park’s trees, like its children, will be gone forever.