Izvještaj s događaja: Taina Tervonen, "Grobničarke"

WRITTEN BY: Nahla Muradbašić

As part of this year's International Literature Festival, organized by Bookstan, on July 4, 2024 at 5:00 p.m., the promotion of the book ‘The Bone Whisperers’ was held. The book was written by a writer of Finnish origin, and the conversation was led by Bosnian writer and journalist Faruk Šehić.

One of the questions was related to her origin. Tervonen explained how she was born in Finland, spent her childhood in Senegal, and currently resides in France. During the conversation, they touched on her experience in Senegal. She pointed out that it was an interesting experience, because she saw what it's like to be different based on some physical characteristic (skin color).

As for the book ‘The Bone Whisperers’, Tervonen said that it is not fiction, but reality. The people mentioned in the book are real beings who experienced the horrors of war. Considering that she kept returning to Bosnia and Herzegovina again and again in the course of 10 years, only upon her first visit did she interview people as part of a press call; later she realized that silence speaks louder than words. The moment she talked about strong Bosnian women is the moment she got a huge applause from the audience.

She was listened to attentively the whole time, and the questions asked by the audience are in support of that. As part of those questions, Tervonen shared advice on how to get out of the blockage during writing, and explained how silence can sometimes be very loud, taking Potočari as an example. At the end of the conversation, she dedicated herself to signing the book and answering additional questions.

Photo (c) Milomir Kovačević Strašni