The Social Sciences Research Center at International Burch University will host Amer Kapetanović, currently the head of the Political Section at the Regional Cooperation Council, for a discussion with the author on his recently published book "Chronicles of a Lost Century" about the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina from the latter part of Ottoman rule onward.
About the Book
Drawing upon archival materials, Prussian diplomatic dispatches, and letters from Prussian consuls in Sarajevo, Amer Kapetanović has crafted an exhilarating novel that unravels the political landscape and destinies in Bosnia and Herzegovina on the eve of Austro-Hungarian occupation and in its aftermath.
Many characters in this novel, such as the consuls, are not figments of imagination: Ottoman pashas, Austro-Hungarian officials, Hadži Lojo, Benjamin Kalay... Both real and 'imagined' characters in the novel at times skillfully and tragically at others navigate through the conflicting interests of great powers, attempting to carve out a place in history for themselves or merely survive in a time of upheaval.
Great political upheavals are inseparable from the small destinies of consuls, their domestic assistants, but also rebels, conspirators, spies, assassins, adventurers... Such a historical legacy in this novel will echo loudly a century later, in our time.
The book is published by Vrijeme, a publishing house in Zenica, in Bosnian.
About the Author
Amer Kapetanović is currently the head of the Political Department at the Regional Cooperation Council, a regional intergovernmental organization based in Sarajevo. Previously, he served as the secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he was also a desk officer and was posted to the embassy in Berlin, Germany. Kapetanović was also a founder of the Foreign Policy Initiative, a Sarajevo-based think tank. He has also published a book on the foreign policy of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Vanjska politika BiH - između izazova i slabosti) in 2005 and was a co-editor of the "The Legacy of Peace - Bosnia and Herzegovina 20 Years after the Dayton Peace Accords," published by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in 2015.
