Faruk Šehić

Faruk Šehić was born in 1970 in Bihać, in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Until the outbreak of war in 1992, he studied veterinary medicine in Zagreb. However, the then 22-year-old joined the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which he led a unit of 130 men. After the war he studied literature and has gone on to create his own literary works.

His second book Hit depot (2003) was the absolutely literary bestseller in Bosnia despite that was a poetry book. In this book he made a sketches of a several main topic of his later works such as post-war life on the edge of society. His poems are about local (and global) feeling of capitalistic way of life mixed with desperate post-war life in ruins, remains of dead society in Sarajevo and Bosnia.

Literary critics have hailed Šehić as the leader of the ‘mangled generation’ of writers born in 1970s Yugoslavia, and his books have achieved cult status with readers across the whole region. His collection of short stories Under Pressure (Pod pritiskom, 2004) was awarded the Zoro Verlag Prize. His debut novel Quiet Flows the Una (Knjiga o Uni, 2011) received the Meša Selimović prize for the best novel published in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia in 2011 and the EU Prize for Literature in 2013. His most recent book is a collection of poetry entitled My Rivers (Moje rijeke, Buybook, 2014) for whom he received Risto Ratković Award for the best poetry book in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia in 2014, and Annual award from Association of Writers of Bosnia and Herzegovina. His books are translated into French, German, English, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Polish, Slovenian and Hungarian language, with new Spanish, Italian and Dutch translation coming. Šehić lives in Sarajevo and works as a columnist and journalist in respected political magazine BH Dani.

Author's titles

Quiet Flows the Una

Buybook Sarajevo, 2011, 218 pages
English translation
Partial French translation

Translation rights sold:  English World Rights (Istros Books), Netherlands (De Geus), Spain (La Huerta Grande), Italy (Mimezis Edizioni), Bulgaria (Era), Poland (Biuro Literackie), Hungary (L’Harmattan), Slovenia (Cankarjeva Založba), Macedonia (Blesok), Croatia (Algoritam), Arabic (Arab Scientific Publishers)

Šehic’s compressed, hypnotic intensity is closest to Tim O’Brien’s Vietnam war novel The Things They CarriedQuiet Flows the Una brands the reader with the same brilliant heat.” —Guardian

Under Pressure

Zoro Publisher, 2003, 166 pages
Translation excerpt in English

Translation rights: World English (Istros Books), France (MEET), Macedonia (Blesok)

Šehić’s literary treatment is closest to that of Babel’s and Hemingway’s. Like in Babel’s Red Cavalry, in Šehić’s stories brutality, naturalism and fine lyrical observations are fast cut, with a devastating effect on the reader.