The Tenth Circle of Hell

In May 1992, the Bosnian civil war arrived in Prijedor, a city where Muslims, Croats and Serbs had lived peaceably for centuries. The Serb occupation of Prijedor was an exercise in what they referred to as "ethnic cleansing"; the Muslim and Croat citizens were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. Among those who lived through this experience was journalist Rezak Hukanovic, and this memoir chronicles his time in the death camps of Omarska and Manjaca and the terror and torture he, his friends, family and neighbours endured at the hands of the Bosnian Serbs. Through his unbelieving eyes, we see how the patina of civilization is stripped away from aggressor and victim alike, and our notions of a basic human decency are called into question.