A young survivor of the Bosnian War returns to his homeland to
confront the people who betrayed his family. The story behind the YA
novel World in Between: Based on a True Refugee Story.
At age eleven, Kenan Trebincevic was a happy, karate-loving kid living
with his family in the quiet Eastern European town of Brcko. Then, in
the spring of 1992, war broke out and his friends, neighbors and
teammates all turned on him. Pero - Kenan's beloved karate coach -
showed up at his door with an AK-47 - screaming: You have one hour to
leave or be killed! Kenan's only crime: he was Muslim. This poignant,
searing memoir chronicles Kenan's miraculous escape from the brutal
ethnic cleansing campaign that swept the former Yugoslavia. After two
decades in the United States, Kenan honors his father's wish to visit
their homeland, making a list of what he wants to do there. Kenan
decides to confront the former next door neighbor who stole from his
mother, see the concentration camp where his Dad and brother were
imprisoned and stand on the grave of his first betrayer to make sure
he's really dead. Back in the land of his birth, Kenan finds something
more powerful--and shocking--than revenge.