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Amra Pajalic Books

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“When people ask me if I have any siblings I say, 'One, an older brother,' but that’s not the truth. I have a sister, or at least I had a sister one summer years ago. The one thing I remember most about that summer is my sister’s 'f**k me eyes.' Not that I knew what that meant, or that I would have thought of that as a description of my sister, but her 'f**k me eyes' were the reason that she lived with us, and the reason that she left.” Flirty Eyes”

DatingComing Of AgeSisters
Book:The Cuckoo's Song
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“As I drank, I saw Srebrenica spread out before me from halfway up the hill, coated with a thick winter fog. Snow dusted the hills surrounding us, hugging the town in its icy embrace. Conifer trees dotted the hills, their branches looking muted from the snow covering them. Snow covered all the roofs in the valley, giving everything a white and still appearance. We felt frozen in time, abandoned and forsaken, which was a true reflection of our internal state. “The government should create a new tourism campaign. Srebrenica, the place where time kneels between mountains.” Ramo waved his hands out to the terrain before us. After we got our breath back from laughing, I passed the bottle to him. My cheeks flushed as he placed his lips over the spout where my lips had been. He finished drinking and handed me the bottle. Our fingers touched, sparks flying.”

LoveWarLove Story
Book:Time Kneels Between Mountains
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“Now the combined sounds blend in. The sound of piss trickling into the bucket, or shit dropping down to splatter onto the smelly leftovers from previous visitors. The sound of grenades and bullets wreaking destruction outside. Sometimes it sounds like a rocket-propelled grenade is right over us, that we should expect the roof to cave in on us and crush us to death. But that is another thing we have gotten used to. We don’t flinch anymore when a grenade whistles overhead.” Siege”

WarRomanceRomeo And JulietSarajevo
Book:The Cuckoo's Song
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“Mama clutched the wall, her face white with terror. 'Stupid girl!' She shook me by my shoulders. 'You can’t run out like that! Snipers will get you.' Like a long thin finger, my hometown of Srebrenica stretched in the valley between steep hills, clustered along the main road leading in and out of town. The green canopy of the birch tree forest looked like green fairy floss dotted with the burgundy terracotta tile roofs of white rendered houses. The nearby hills were a perfect vantage point for snipers. In the time it took them to shoot once, miss, and correct their target, an innocent bystander would have time to take just one step.” Fragments”

WarSiegeBosnian WarSrebrenica
Book:The Cuckoo's Song
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“The students carried the boy spread-eagled and slammed his genitals against a pole. He dropped on the concrete like a sack of potatoes, holding his crotch, squirming in pain. Sounds that I didn’t think a human could produce came out of his throat. ‘Bastard just got knackered.’ Kayla laughed, noticing my horror. ‘Every school tour starts like this.’” School of Hardknocks”

High SchoolYoung Adult FictionComing Of Age Stories
Book:The Cuckoo's Song
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“She tucked the sheet around Shirley and fluffed her pillow. Shirley stared blankly at her. The nurse’s composure broke for a moment. Shirley’s stare had a habit of doing that to people, at least until you got used to it. Most Alzheimer patients looked blank. As if the lights were switched off in their brain, but not Shirley. She looked like there was a part of herself fighting to come back. Her eyes were full of terror. Like there was something horrific only she could see and she was screaming for help, but she couldn’t get any part of her body to cooperate.” Friends Forever”

Historical FictionCrime FictionRevenge Story
Book:The Cuckoo's Song
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