Description

When Serbian police arrived at our home to arrest me-three days after I helped organize the Kosovo independence referendum of September 1991, six-year-old daughter ran to the officer crying, "Please don't arrest my best friend!" In that moment-a child's innocence confronting state violence-I understood that our story wasn't just about survival. It was about the human cost of systematic oppression.

*Fear & Hate* chronicles Fatmir's life under Serbian occupation in Kosovo-from childhood through forced exile to Canada. As a journalist for *Rilindja* and a human rights worker, he documented atrocities that reached the UN. He witnessed his cousin's murder, survived interrogation and torture, and led thirteen young men across a 2,498-meter mountain while his family fled below.

But this memoir's power lies in intimate moments: a mother walking into machine gun range to get bread, a daughter caught in crossfire, a family hiding wedding rings in a tree before fleeing.

Twenty-seven years later, with ten grandchildren spread across two countries, Fatmir writes: "The ache of exile lingers, but so does the quiet strength of a life rebuilt with dignity."

Perfect for readers of The Beekeeper of Aleppo, "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families," and The Unwanted.

A powerful memoir of survival and resilience under Serbian occupation in Kosovo, chronicling one man's journey from childhood through exile to rebuilding in Canada.