Comparing In The Shadow Of The Banyan And The Bosnia List

Between In the Shadow of the Banyan, an autobiography from the Cambodian genocide, and The Bosnia List, a memoir about the Bosnian genocide; both novels tell a heart-wrenching story about a victim of genocide. In the Shadow of the Banyan is written by Vaddey Ratner, who tells her story of a young child trying to survive during the Cambodian genocide, while witnessing almost all of her family pass away. Kenan Trebincevic writes The Bosnia List as a recollection of obstacles he had to face during and after the Bosnian genocide. Trebincevic’s memoir and Ratner’s autobiography share a story through a genocide victim’s lens, however, the context in which they’re drawn upon differs greatly. When Ratner was only five-years-old, the Khmer Rouge took

Trebincevic’s book, The Bosnia List, is a memoir that jumps chapter to chapter from Trebincevic’s life during the Bosnian genocide in the 90’s to his post-genocide life. Trebincevic was an eleven-year-old Bosnian Muslim when Bosnia-Herzegovina declared independence from former Yugoslavia in 1992. This sets off a chain of events that results in Trebincevic’s family being the only Muslim family left in their town of Brcko only a year after the genocide begins. Trebincevic’s family was lucky enough to all make it out of Bosnia alive and fled to the United

361). Whether or not the logic behind these two tragedies was legitimate, it caused devastation for millions of people in Cambodia and Bosnia. Kenan Trebencevic, author of the Bosnia List, became a target almost overnight and everyone who was once his friend, turned into his enemy during the Bosnian genocide from 1992-1995. Almost two decades, before the Bosnian genocide was the Cambodian genocide from 1975-1979 when Pol Pot and his communist party, the Khmer Rouge, turned Cambodia upside-down. It was during this time that author and genocide victim, Vaddey Ratner, writes about in her autobiography, In the Shadow of the Banyan. While both novels reveal a perspective on genocide from a victim’s point-of-view, Trebensevic’s memoir unravels a deeper meaning than Ratner’s