Croatian War Nocturnal

Croatian War Nocturnal / Spomenka Stimec
trans. from the Esperanto by Sebastian Schulman
Los Angeles: Phoneme Media, 2017, c1993.
120 p.

This is the only book I've ever read which was written in Esperanto. If you're not familiar with it, it's a rather utopian project, a created language (in 1887) meant to facilitate international communication. There are Esperanto societies around the world, and the author of this book belongs to one in Croatia.

This slim book is a fictionalized memoir of the wars in the former Yugoslavia; the author's persona is also an Esperanto specialist, the irony being that this language created for the unity of the world is being used to write a novel during time in a bomb shelter during a vicious war that divided a county irrevocably. 

The book is small but powerful. It's a series of meditations on the country, starting with the author's memories of visiting her grandmother in Belgrade, now impossible to access via Zagreb where she is living. Her family divided across the war zones and ethnic identities fighting it out. Then there is the story of a father of five, a fellow Esperantist and pacifist who is called up to a war he isn't interested in fighting - his story weaves throughout the book. 

The style is smooth and wide-ranging. There is a clear eyed reportage feel to it, but with a thoughtful, literary element to the use of language and detail. It feels like an elegy to the country itself, and was really moving to read. She's a bookish person, and the focus on language, communication, literature, adds resonance. There is horrific detail just slid into the story as just a normal part of life then, but there isn't a "side" to the telling; she really is a true pacifist. 

The narrative is structured in brief chapters, with short sections in each, ranging between thoughts and reflections on the present, ie: her brother getting his call up notice, or the experience of being in the apartment's bomb shelter, to the past -- the history of Yugoslavia, including the language used in its creation, and musings on Esperanto itself and the international community committed to its use and spread, which also functions as a sort of communal aid society to be called on for help.

The language that this book was written in is really integral to the story itself. Her commitment to Esperanto is also her commitment to peace and unity. And thus this story of a terrible civil war is made even more tragic, even in the cool and reserved tone used here.

The book ends with the question:

Around me, in this world of people who do not know how to defend themselves other than with firearms, my disgust for hatred invites suspicion. Am I enough of a patriot? How long will I tolerate Cyrillic? I, who believe that weapons cannot make the world a better place. 

(You can find an excerpt here to get a taste of this startling, memorable book)