Talk with Vahida Berberovic, author of 'Where the Soil Remembers'

Join us for an author talk with Vahida Berberovic to discuss her debut novel, Where the Soil Remembers.

Please arrive at 5.15pm for 5.30pm start

Light refreshments provided

Free RSVP

 RoseyRavelston Books

1 Badgery Crescent, Lawson NSW 2783

How is it possible to go on living when there is nothing to live for? How can you find beauty in this ugly world?

From the spring of 1992, approximately 100,000 people were killed as Yugoslavia collapsed and disintegrated. Bosnian Muslims were systematically removed and massacred. Selma survived. Her husband and young daughter did not.

Selma’s Australian cousin, Damir, helped extract her and bring her to Sydney, where she has built a seemingly perfect life–complete with a new husband and child. She has buried her loss, her grief, and the guilt of having survived. She has become a different person, far away from the Selma who loved, lost and witnessed the horrors of humanity.

However, the news of the trial of alleged Bosnian Serb war criminal Borislav Simic shatters Selma’s carefully constructed world. She fails at her job, her family, and barely escapes, causing her own death. Selma realises that she must return to Bosnia. She needs to unlock her past to grieve, to reconcile with the unimaginable, so she can forgive and find compassion within herself and her past.

Followed by audience Q&A and book signing.

‘Where the Soil Remembers is a thoughtful exploration of survival, displacement and building a new life without severing yourself from the old.’ – Books & Publishing, 29 September 2026 

'Tackling one of the darkest chapters of human history with a keen eye and sharp prose, Vahida Berberovic has given us a poignant, unforgettable meditation on grief, selfhood, and the indomitability of the human spirit.’ – Téa Obrecht, author 

About the Author

Vahida Berberovic is a writer of contemporary fiction and teacher of English and Communications. She is a refugee from Bosnia, and her writing explores displacement, the patriarchy and the quiet resilience of survivors shaped by war. She has been awarded an international writing residency at the Vermont Studio Centre and a writing residency at the Varuna: the National Writers' House. Her fiction and poetry have been published in a range of literary magazines and anthologies. Vahida Berberovic is the inaugural winner of the WestWords Prize for this, her debut novel Where the Soil Remembers.