Nermina’s Chance, by Dina Greenberg
War sears its imprint on the human spirit in infinite ways.
After her family is murdered and her body ravaged by Serbian soldiers, Nermina Beganović’s only chance of survival is to flee her Bosnian homeland during the Balkan War, circa 1992.
Nermina’s Chance by Dina Greenberg reimagines the essence of family and plumbs the depths of a mother’s ardent connection to her daughter.
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“Nermina’s Chance recounts the harrowing odyssey of a young woman escaping war and atrocity to find a new home in America. Her story—steeped in yearning and hope—is the age-old story of immigrants of all kinds seeking a better life, the story of damaged people healing one another with a fierce and gentle humanity that battles against brute barbarism. Beautifully and dramatically told, full of insight and empathy, with crisp clarity and a laudable moral vision.”
Philip Gerard, author of Cape Fear Rising
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“As a refugee and survivor, I worried that Nermina’s Chance might not do justice to the historical facts of my war, to my city, and it’s people who had suffered so deeply. Though forensic in detail, the novel eludes the trap of a single narrative—as important as this one is. Instead, Dina Greenberg performs the job of a skilled fiction writer, wielding her imagination to bring to life one woman’s healing journey with empathy and humanity.”
Zrinka Bralo, CEO, Migrants Organise
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“Nermina’s Chance in less expert hands would have ended up as a drifting trilogy. Dina Greenberg has kept her story together in one tight and suspenseful narrative, intricately woven. She has given us a cast of main characters each worthy of their own novel. Rarely does a story blend so meaningfully the horrors of war, the possibilities and limits of love, and the human need for family. If you give Nermina’s Chance a chance, you will soon be turning the last page.”
Clyde Edgerton, author of Walking Across Egypt and The Night Train
