by Scott Turow
“Hope it all works out,” she said. She gave me another brooding look, still yearning for the forgiveness she wasn’t going to get from me, then slapped my shoulder and headed back inside.
When that beautiful front door of hers slammed, I more or less slid into the emotional sinkhole that had begun to trickle open inside me a second before. I had arrived at that moment I’d feared a few months ago in The Hague, confronting the reality that my extended efforts at renewal had gotten me nowhere. I was approaching fifty-five years old and had done my level best to give myself a chance to be happy. I’d tried to do the right things and figure out what mattered. But here I was. The bad guys, whoever they were, weren’t getting punished. The people of Barupra were suffering in Kosovo. And I was still without a home. What the hell, anyway?
I touched the auto’s start button beside the wheel, but my phone, in my shirt pocket, began to vibrate. My heart spurted and I was suddenly high with hope.
It was Nara.
Author’s Note
So how much of this is true? Every novelist wants to answer that question the same way: All of it—and none.
I’ll be a little more straightforward. I was often inspired by real-world events. Yet this is a work of imagination. No character is a representation of anyone who has lived. That is because even when I started from actual occurrences, I altered them for dramatic effect or to serve the larger purposes of my story.
For example, despite the deplorable history of abuse of the Rom people, including during the Balkan Wars, there never was a Roma refugee camp on the outskirts of the real Eagle Base. I am not aware of a massacre of hundreds of Roma, actual or alleged, in Bosnia after the war, let alone one in which American NATO troops were suspects. In fact, the reputation of the US troops who served at Eagle Base, as I heard it, was outstanding, although I cannot say the same about our private military contractors. (See, for example, Human Rights Watch Report, Vol. 14 No. 9 (D), “Hopes Betrayed: Trafficking of Women and Girls to Post-Conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina for Forced Prostitution” [New York: Human Rights Watch, 2002].)
On the other hand, the shipment of hundreds of thousands of weapons from Bosnia to Iraq in August 2004, including the fact that the disposition of those arms has never been accounted for, is well documented by, among others, the Government Accountability Office and Amnesty International. (See Glenn Kessler, “Weapons Given to Iraq Are Missing,” Washington Post, August 6, 2007; Amnesty International and TransArms, Dead on Time: Arms Transportation, Brokering and the Threat to Human Rights (London: Amnesty International, May 2006); see also “Bosnian Arms Donated to Afghanistan Probably in Taliban’s Hands—Researcher,” BBC Monitoring International Reports, August 14, 2007; and Stephen Braun, “Bad Guys Make Even Worse Allies,” Los Angeles Times, August 13, 2007, http://www.latimes.com/la-oe-braun13aug13-story.html.
In the same vein, I acknowledge that I’ve sometimes played loose with the geography of Bosnia. The description of major cities was intended to be accurate. However, the small towns I mention are generally fictitious, as is the monastery at Madovic, even though it bears some resemblance to other monasteries elsewhere in BiH.
Rather than turn this Note into a law review article, with endless citations cataloging the pieces of reality that were my starting places, I have posted on my website (www.scottturow.com) a series of page-by-page endnotes describing some of what inspired me. I have also included there a bibliography of the many written works central to my research. I am deeply indebted to those writers.
Readers will not be surprised to learn that writing this book took me to Europe a number of times, including trips to the Netherlands and Bosnia. I will never be able to adequately thank the many persons who shared their time and impressions with me. Everyone spoke to me without precondition on what I was going to write, and I suspect that in many cases they will disagree with the opinions I—or my characters—have expressed. None of the people mentioned below are responsible either for my views or for the errors I undoubtedly made despite their efforts. (And to the many who preferred to stay unacknowledged, I remain mindful of your help and deeply grateful.)
First, the International Criminal Court. Like any institution, the ICC has its strengths and its weaknesses. But I share with Boom the belief that, given the enduring reality of wartime atrocities, the ICC is indispensable in making the world more just. I hope that in time the United States lends its moral authority to the Court by ratifying the treaty we signed. Given the legal foundations for the Court’s exercise of its authority, I regard US fears of the Court, while far from fanciful, as misplaced and at odds with the US’s long-term interest in supporting the rule of law around the world.
I was received at the Court by a number of officials: Presiding Judge Cuno Tarfusser; the Prosecutor, Mrs. Fatou Bensouda; and registrar Herman von Hebel. I also talked with many current or former members of the OTP. Professor Alex Whiting of Harvard Law School was extraordinarily generous with his time and made many introductions; I spoke also with Sam Lowery, Julian Nicholls, and Claus Molitor, among others.
Marie O’Leary, Dan Ivetic, and Vera Douwes Dekker helped me understand the lives of defense lawyers in The Hague, at both the ICC and the ICTY.
The wonderful novelist Jean Kwok and her husband, Erwin Kluwer, introduced me to Indonesian cuisine in The Hague and answered countless questions over the next two years about life in their home city. Both read an earlier draft of this book and corrected errors large and small, including a couple that would have proved downright comical.
My understanding of The Hague and the surrounding diplomatic environment was greatly enhanced through my conversations with my friends, our former ambassador to the Netherlands Fay Hartog-Levin and her husband, Dan Levin. Ambassador Tim Broas was also kind enough to see me at the embassy. Many of the connections I made in the diplomatic community occurred with the help of my dear friends Julie and David Jacobson, David being both my former law partner and our recent ambassador to Canada. I am also indebted to Andrew Wright and Thea Geerts-Kuijper for their hospitality while I was in The Hague. Thanks, too, to Retired Judge Thomas Buergenthal of the International Court of Justice, who talked to me informally about global legal issues. Last regarding Holland, a shout-out of deep thanks to Hague resident William Rosato, who offered intrepid suggestions for the plot of this book.
My comprehension of Bosnia was enlarged by many people. My high school classmates, our former ambassador there (and in Greece) Tom Miller and his wife, Bonnie Stern Miller, provided invaluable insights. Scott Simon was kind enough to share some of his recollections of Bosnia from his time there as a reporter (and as the author of a superb novel, Pretty Birds, which also informed me in many ways). I spoke several times to Christopher Bragdon, who runs BILD, an NGO committed to Bosnian rebuilding and reconciliation. My fellow Chicagoan, the renowned author Aleksandar Hemon, offered periodic advice about his homeland while I was writing and kindly corrected errors in an earlier draft of the book. I must offer not only words of gratitude but also of apology to Husagić Mesnur and the officials of Rudnik soli Tuzla (“Tuzla Salt Mine”), who welcomed me warmly, with no idea of the evil that can take place in a novelist’s imagination. All events that Boom describes at a different—and entirely imaginary—salt mine are completely fictitious. Great thanks to Edin Selvic for the day he spent with me, including showing me the site of Camp Bedrock. My gratitude to Professor Eric Stover of the UC Berkeley School of Law for our e-mail exchanges about human rights issues and forensic anthropology, including one sad story that I wove into this novel.
In the town of Poljice, Nazif Mujić, known to the world through his role in the prizewinning film An Episode in the Life of An Iron Picker, welcomed me to his home, and with his family and friends spoke to me at length about Roma life in Bosnia. Thanks, too, to my friend Michael Bandler, who helped expand my understanding of international issues concerning the Roma.
No one was more helpful in deepening my understanding of Bosnia than my i
ncomparable guide there, Dajana Zildzic. Dajana drove me around her country for days, spoke to me candidly about Bosnia, and translated for me in several interviews. She also reviewed and corrected a prior version of the book. Finally, she helped with a small humanitarian project we undertook together, with the assistance of Chris Bragdon.
Changing hemispheres, the esteemed Australian author, authors’ advocate, and editor Angelo Loukakis helped Goos speak better Australian. Angelo also offered discerning comments on the manuscript.
Closer to home, I received valuable feedback on early drafts of the book from Julian Solotorovsky and Dan Pastern; my agent at CAA, Bruce Vinokour; and from my daughters, Rachel Turow and Eve Turow Paul, as well as my son-in-law Ben Schiffrin.
Eternal thanks to the world’s greatest literary agent, Gail Hochman. And big applause and gratitude to my editor Deb Futter, who deserves extra-special mention for being willing to bet on a book with a largely foreign setting in an unfamiliar legal system, as well as for her tireless editing that put me through my paces on several drafts.
Last, love and special thanks to my wife Adriane, who read and commented on several drafts. More to the point, she put up for years with my sudden vacant looks and half-finished sentences when, in the midst of our conversations, my mind flew back to Boom.
Also by Scott Turow
Identical
Innocent
Limitations
Ordinary Heroes
Ultimate Punishment
Reversible Errors
Personal Injuries
The Laws of Our Fathers
Pleading Guilty
The Burden of Proof
Presumed Innocent
One L
About the Author
Scott Turow is the author of ten bestselling works of fiction, including Identical, Innocent, Presumed Innocent, and The Burden of Proof, and two nonfiction books, including One L, about his experience as a law student. His books have been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, and have been adapted into movies and television projects. He frequently contributes essays and op-ed pieces to publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Time.