UPDATED EDITION
Including a new chapter

'Spacious and full-hearted . . . Confessional yet honourably restrained . . . unforgettable.' Independent

Aleksandar Hemon grew up in a blissful Sarajevo, where his childhood was consumed by football, his adolescence by friends, movies and girls and where, as a young man, he poked at the pretensions of his beloved city with American music, bad poetry, and slightly better journalism.

And then at 27 Hemon flew to Chicago for a month-long visit. A matter of weeks later Sarajevo was engulfed in an atrocious war and Hemon found himself an exile - he wouldn't return home for five years, and when he did, he found his city irrevocably changed.

'It is, without doubt, the most necessary, intimate and heartbreaking portrait of a world lost to one of history's darkest conflicts.' Téa Obreht, author of The Tiger's Wife

'The Book of My Lives is written with the full force of humanity. It will make you think, laugh, cry, and remember yourself . . . prepare to have your worldview deepened.' Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close