- Short-listed, Margaret and John Savage First Book Award
WINNER OF THE 2011 Fresh Fish Award for Emerging Writers, Lesleyanne Ryan’s debut novel, Braco, takes place over the five days fol¬lowing the fall of Srebrenica in 1995. The narrative follows the perspectives of Bosnian civilians, UN Peacekeepers, Serbian and Bosnian soldiers, as well as a Canadian photojournalist. A retired veteran and former Bosnian Peacekeeper, Ryan vividly captures the visceral tension and horror of Bosnian refugees fleeing Srebrenica, the ensuing massacre of Bosnian men, and the inability of the Dutch peacekeepers to protect them. The award judges acclaimed the debut novel as a “compelling, captivating, and fast-paced novel, from its vivid and intriguing prologue set in Srebrenica to an ending that fits, if not satisfies.”
close this panel"A gripping fictional account of one of the darkest moments of the wars in the former Yugoslavia. Lesleyanne Ryan writes with unswerving force, and Braco is direct and forceful; an impressive debut."
“A bombshell of a book… harrowing and instructive and maddening.”
“Braco speaks of the part of us that can be charged with hate and do monstrous things. The part of us that can be filled with impotence and keep us up at night with regret… Ryan casts us as villains, victims, and bystanders. She puts us on either end of the monster’s gun – capable of killing, being killed, or standing idly by. And the net result leaves us not with answers as to why, but with the survivor’s quandary of now what?
