Three Summers: A Memoir of Sisterhood, Summer Crushes, and Growing Up on the Eve of War by Amra Sabic-El-Rayess and Laura L. Sullivan (review)

Reviewed by: Three Summers: A Memoir of Sisterhood, Summer Crushes, and Growing Up on the Eve of War by Amra Sabic-El-Rayess and Laura L. Sullivan Kate Quealy-Gainer, Editor Sabic-El-Rayess, Amra Three Summers: A Memoir of Sisterhood, Summer Crushes, and Growing Up on the Eve of War; by Amra Sabic-El-Rayess and Laura L. Sullivan. Farrar, 2024 [352p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780374390815 $18.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780374390822 $11.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 5-8 When her beloved older brother dies, eleven-year-old Amra disappears into herself, unable to find joy in school or at home in her small town of Bihać, Bosnia. Worried, her desperate mother decides the young girl needs a friend her age, and so Mama calls her own cousin to bring her daughter Žana to meet Amra. Though related, the two girls have never met, partly because Amra and her family are Muslim, and Žana's father is from a Serbian Chetnik family, known for their hatred of Bosnian Muslims. The politics of the 1980s mean little to the young girls, however, who quickly become attached at the hip, spending their summer days lounging on the riverbanks of the Una, eating Amra's mother's delicious cooking, and discussing which boys they like. When the school year starts, Žana must return home, but [End Page 292] the two friends write each other often and are able to spend the next two summers together, until the political situation escalates to violence and Serbs invade Bihać. Amra's narration begins with a conversational, sometimes even childish tone that gives an inviting authenticity to this slice-of-life memoir, centering her everyday experiences as a preteen and teen even as those around her become increasingly embroiled in global events. The book is divided by the three summers, and in the first two, body hair, first heartbreaks, and gossip take up much of her time. But by the third summer, it's clear partisan tensions are straining their families, and Amra's adoration of Žana is dampened by Žana's father's increasing involvement in the Serbian military. Readers learn along with Amra of the complicated geopolitical situation unfolding, and her voice transforms from mischievous and playful to wary, scared, and haunted. For readers not yet ready to process the actual atrocities of the Bosnian genocide documented in Sabic-El-Rayess' YA memoir, The Cat I Never Named: A True Story of Love, War, and Survival (BCCB 9/20), this would serve as an informative primer. A timeline, author's note, and list of sources are included.