Shards

Ismet Prcic’s work of literary fiction, Shards (2011), follows the main character, whose name is also Ismet Prcic, as he struggles to overcome the guilt he feels as a refugee and survivor of the Bosnian War. Ismet moves back and forth in time between life as a teenager in America and life as a child in Bosnia, sifting through fragments of memory, trauma, joy, and friendship. Woven into the story is another character, Mustafa, whose fate is undetermined, but whose ghost haunts Ismet as he writes through his grief.

The novel is written in three distinct threads of narrative that examine the symbolic shards of life left behind after war tears through a nation. The first thread of the narrative is Ismet's diary which provides insight into his life in America as a teenager living in Los Angeles.

In his diary, Ismet goes by Izzy. Nineteen years old when he comes to America in 1996, he has developed incredible fluency in English based on American slang and television. He speaks like a typical American teenager, hiding the darker and more troubling parts of his memory. Many of the moments recorded in Izzy's diary are funny, as in the anecdotes he tells about life with his roommate. Both boys spend time flipping through the TV stations looking for nudity, and they call to each other whenever they see a pair of breasts. They smoke cigarettes on their balcony and live what appear to be normal lives.



Addressed to his mom, Izzy has written a lot in his diary about the anxiety and depression that has come to define his life since his childhood. As the novel goes on, the anxiety and depression increase as Izzy moves from simplistic recollections of daily life in America to memories of war.

The second thread of the novel consists of childhood recollections Izzy writes as part of a therapeutic process to alleviate some of his survivor's guilt. Ismet grew up in Tuzla, and he recalls watching his mother chain smoke cigarettes as she watched the news, anticipating the coming war. He recalls his city under siege and life in refugee camps, as well as more typical moments meeting his girlfriend and enjoying the theatre. However, each moment is tinged with the reality of war—Izzy describes the sound of a shell descending upon the city, the way it deafens you for a moment before your hearing returns.

Becoming involved in an experimental theatre troupe, Ismet finds some semblance of escape, both literal and metaphorical, in his acting. He goes to the Fringe Festival in Scotland, the trip allowing him to dodge his draft date for the conflict in Bosnia, most likely saving his life.



The final thread of the novel follows a fictionalized character, Mustafa, who does not escape the war. Mustafa, the reader soon realizes, is Ismet's alter-ego—the man he would have been if he had been drafted. He is the Bosnian who did not escape, the epitome of all that Ismet fears and grieves.

Ismet Prcic was born in Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina. He emigrated to America in 1996. Receiving an MFA from the University of California Irvine, he won an NEA Award for Fiction in 2010. In 2011, he was a fellow at the Sundance Screenwriting Lab. Shards, his debut novel, won a number of awards, including an Oregon Book Award, LA Times Book Prize, and a Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction. Ismet now lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife.