Pretty Birds (40 page)

Amela looked across the swells of grass and into the stony blue shoulders of Mount Igman. She would walk over the fields and the hills to the other side of the mountain, and find the ride that would take her to Bihac, and the place in which, she was suddenly quite certain, she was going to give her life.

You may keep Sarajevo. You have earned it.

—SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC, PRESIDENT OF SERBIA,
TO ALIJA IZETBEGOVIC, PRESIDENT OF BOSNIA,
AT THE 1995 TALKS IN DAYTON, OHIO, THAT DIVIDED BOSNIA.

Milosevic is now on trial for war crimes.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to so many who offered their counsel, cautions, and recollections:

Dr. Wesley Bayles of the Georgetown Veterinary Hospital; Peter Breslow of NPR News; the staff of the Periodical Research Centre of the British Museum; Hamo Cimic of Sarajevo; Chief Terrance W. Gainer of the U.S. Capitol Police; Tom Gjelten of NPR News; Laura Hillenbrand; the staff of the photo archives of London's Imperial War Museum; Lika Job; Avi Kotkowsky of El Paso, Texas; the Lincoln Park Zoo; Elvis Mitchell; Julia Mitric, now of Sacramento; Lawrence K. Morgan of the U.S. Capitol Police; Dr. Lee Morgan of the Georgetown Veterinary Hospital; Jim Naydar; Dika Redzic of Sarajevo; Edouard Richard (my father-in-law); Dr. Pam Schraeger of the Friendship Hospital for Animals; Matthew Scully; Jerry Smith of the U.S. Capitol Police; Dr. Stanley Tempchin; Alphonse Vinh of NPR; Dr. Ronald Warren of Massachusetts General Hospital; Rabbi Daniel Zemel of Temple Micah; and Fahrudin Zilkic, who will one day write his own book about the years he devoted to defending his remarkable city.

Any mistakes are mine alone.

Lily Linton made it possible for much of this volume to be written under the gaze of Picasso's goat. This is the third book I have produced under the watchful goad of Kee Malesky, who could improve the text on a cereal box.

I have tried to contain this story within the timeline and confines of real-life events. But this is a novel, not a history or journalism. I have invented a few streets and buildings. I have also permitted myself to put words in the mouths of a few real personages, including Radovan Karadzic and Osama Bin Laden. However, their remarks are based on statements they made before much of the world paid notice.

Suada Kapic presides over a remarkable enterprise in Sarajevo called
FAMA, which works to preserve the history of the longest siege of the
twentieth century and keep those lessons vital. In a world beset by urgent
causes, I hope that at least some readers might be moved to offer FAMA
support to continue its work.

My time as a reporter in Sarajevo was spent in partnership with my
longtime recording engineer and friend Manoli Wetherell. Sarajevo deepened our friendship. No doubt many of the feelings that I brought to this
book began in her durable heart.

The Millic and Tedic families of Sarajevo took us into their homes and
hearts in 1993 and 1994. This book, whatever else it might be, is a small repayment for their kindness and courage.

I talked over many of the themes in this story in the spring of 2003 with
my friend Elizabeth Neufer of the
Boston Globe,
on a long, daunting ride
from Amman to Baghdad. Elizabeth did not make it home. The human-rights reporting she helped to advance lives on in her influence as a journalist and friend to so many.

I owe Jonathan Lazear abiding thanks for believing in this book and
bringing it to the best publisher in America, Dan Menaker at Random
House. Stephanie Higgs put extraordinary work and care into the manuscript.

Many of the characters in this story voice contempt for the role of the
United Nations in Bosnia. I share that disdain. But I do not forget (and
Sarajevans dont) that 166 French, British, Canadian, and other U.N. soldiers lost their lives in Bosnia between 1992 and 1996. Their sacrifice is also
part of Sarajevos legacy.

I had intended that the thanks I owe my wife, Caroline Richard Simon,
be embodied in the books dedication (we had missed meeting in 1993—its
a long story—because I was in Sarajevo). But Caroline came to feel so
deeply about the city and its people that she insisted the dedication be to
them—a request that bears out her brilliant sensitivity in all things. Caroline named almost every character in this story. I cannot put an adequate
name on the love I hold for her.

We pray that our new daughter, Elise Sylvie Simon, will grow up in a
world swept clean of the menace that destroyed so many in Bosnia. But we
would feel blessed to have a child who faces up to his or her human responsibilities with the courage and poise of Sarajevans.

The city is smaller and grimmer today. The wounds of war are raw. But, despite its losses, Sarajevo remains an outpost of diversity, civility,
culture, and even joy. Its struggle was costly, valuable, brave, and just.

SSS
London
October 2004

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

S
COTT
S
IMON
is the host of NPR's
Weekend Edition with Scott Simon.
He has covered ten wars, from El Salvador to Iraq, and has won every major award in broadcasting, including the Peabody and the Emmy. He has hosted many public television programs, and is a frequent essayist for newspapers and television. His memoir,
Home and Away,
rose to the top of the
Los Angeles Times
nonfiction bestseller list. His next book,
Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball,
was named a Barnes & Noble Sports Book of the Year. He lives with his wife, Caroline, and their daughter, Elise.

ALSO BY SCOTT SIMON

Home and Away: Memoir of a Fan

Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball

This is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical and public figures, are products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real-life historical or public figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are entirely fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the entirely fictional nature of the work. In all other respects, any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2005 by Scott Simon

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

Random House and colophon are registered

trademarks of Random House, Inc.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Simon, Scott.

Pretty birds : a novel / Scott Simon.

p. cm.

1. Sarajevo (Bosnia and Hercegovina)—Fiction. 2. Yugoslav War, 1991–1995—Fiction. 3. Women soldiers—Fiction. 4. Teenage girls—Fiction. 5. Muslim girls—Fiction. 6. Snipers—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3619.I5626P74 2005

813′.6—dc22 2004061432

Random House website address:
www.atrandom.com

Title page image by Marcie Jan Bronstein/nonstøck

eISBN: 978-1-58836-463-0

v3.0