The author of Bosnian-Herzegovinian origin, Aleksandar Hemon, won the prestigious Grand Prix Award for American Literature for 2023 in France. This award, established in 2015, annually recognizes the best American novel or collection of stories translated into French. Hemon received this award for his novel "The World of Heaven and Earth," which follows the story of two refugees, Rafael Pinto, a Sephardi apothecary, and Osman, a Muslim soldier. Their friendship begins in the Ukrainian trenches after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in the summer of 1914. The novel explores their lives that take them through different parts of the world, including Tashkent, Shanghai, and Jerusalem, in the context of the geopolitical and war turmoil of the first half of the 20th century. In the explanation of the jury, it was emphasized that Hemon's novel is "a powerful medicine against forgetting" and that it represents "a work unique in its genre.". The author, who was the former president of BHAAAS, strives to oppose nationalism and racism through his writing, inspired by his own experience of war and migration. On behalf of the entire BHAAAS, we congratulate Aleksandar Hemon on this exceptional recognition!
English
Bosanski
