Alison's Reviews > Three Summers: A Memoir of Sisterhood, Summer Crushes, and Growing Up on the Eve of War

Three Summers is the teenage years memoir of Amra Sabic-El0Rayess, a Muslim Bosniak prior to the Bosnian War. After the loss of her older brother to Marfan syndrome Amra is, understandably, depressed. As a last ditch effort her mother calls on her estranged cousin, who happens to have a daughter the same age. When Zara comes to visit she is confident, strong willed, and out-going and she not only pulls Amra out of her funk, but begins to build her up into the woman she eventually becomes. This is the events of those three magical summers that they were able to spend together.

This was a huge dip into the culture of the young in Bosnia in the 80's. You get a taste of the rising tensions and upcoming conflict, but much of the book centers on how it was growing up for them. How there was no difference between the Bosnians and the Serbs other than their religious beliefs, despite the rhetoric that was spread before and during the war. It is a story of family, and traditions, and sisters of the heart.

The nice thing about this book is that it did not read like a typical memoir to me. It seemed like it could have been just a story of kids in Bihac over the course of three summers. The adventures they got into and the emotions that they felt strongly, like only the young can. While there were some facts about religion, it was not the predominant theme of the story, other than the fact that her family was Muslim and were treated differently at different stages in the book because of it. The hardest part of this book, for me, was trying to remember how young Amra was for these three summers. That she was only 11/12 when they are talking about flirting with boys out at the river and 12/13 when they are heading to the discotheque to dance until 11pm.

Overall I liked the book. It was a great look at culture and history in the form of a great story.