Artists After the Escape: Saša Stanišić, from Bosnia to Germany

For a long time, books by the Bosnian-German writer Saša Stanišić were regarded an insider tip — before they reaped awards because they are so truly authentic. Painstakingly researched, his amusing stories from Bosnia ("How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone") and absurd tales about trapping and traps set in the eastern German Uckermark region ("Trappers") are very successful.

He clearly remembers things that were once important to him, he told DW — and that includes his hometown of Visegrad in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In his books, he incorporates life on the Drina River, and the tales of the old men he would listen to for hours when he was a child. The 16th century Visegrad Bridge, above, is a landmark in his hometown.

The Bosnia and Herzegovina war came as a violent intrusion. The Stanišić family managed to flee Visegrad just in time, carrying no more than three brown suitcases with the bare necessities. Saša was 14 years old. They made it to the Serbian border, walked all the way to Belgrade and finally flew to Munich, where an uncle lived and vouched for the family.

On August 20, 1992, Saša Stanišić and his mother arrived in Heidelberg, an idyllic German university town on the Neckar River. The landscape was similar to what he had known back home, and he enjoyed sitting beside taciturn fishermen on the banks of the river, like he used to in Visegrad. His father, who had stayed behind in Bosnia to move his aging mother to safety, joined them later.

For the teenager, the castle ruin high above Heidelberg's old town was "the most beautiful ruin in the world." In Bosnia, the only ruins he knew were ruins of war. The stone bridge across the Neckar River was like a bridge that led to the past he left behind in destroyed Bosnia. The family lived with the uncle before moving to a small apartment of their own.

After arriving in Germany, an amazed Saša and his mother would walk the tourist paths. The cobble stones and street lights on the bridge looked strangely familiar but still foreign. The German language was a mystery for the 14-year-old. No one understood them, and they understood no one. He knew the German words for soccer and chocolate ice cream, and then learned to say "My name is …" in German.

Many languages echoed along the streets of Heidelberg's old town, a hotspot for tourists from all over the world. No one took notice of the Bosnian refugees. At school, Saša Stanišić enjoyed piecing together sentences in German in his language class for refugee children. At age 15, he began to write poetry, even in German. He was beginning to feel at ease.

The German Immigration Office kept close tabs on the family. Following the 1995 Dayton Agreement, the family was meant to be deported to Bosnia, a move officially termed "voluntary return." Thanks to a friendly official's advice, young Saša applied to college and was allowed to stay in Germany. Eventually, he wanted to teach German as a foreign language.

Saša Stanišić left his family home in Emmertsgrund, a migrant community on the outskirts of Heidelberg, and moved downtown. The fact that he was a refugee from Bosnia no longer mattered. The young man concentrated on his classes, completed his M.A. and went to the US for a year.

As a student, he began to write literary texts, honing his skills at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig. In 2005, one of his stories won the audience award at the Ingeborg Bachmann Competition. It launched his career as a German-language writer. Meanwhile, Saša Stanišić has written bestselling books, and received many literary awards.

Stanišić, meanwhile the father of a young son, received German citizenship in 2103. His parents, forced to leave Germany in 1998, moved to the US state of Florida. Stanišić is politically active as a member of the PEN center. He is also a great observer of the people surrounding him — they might find themselves pop up as characters in his next novel.