Mesa Selimovic was born on 26 April 1910 in Tuzla, Bosnia. His father, a merchant, was of the upper, or aga, class, so Mesa and his siblings knew neither want nor hardship during their early years. It was probably from his father that Mesa absorbed a certain noblesse that he carried with him throughout his life. In his memoir, Sjecanja (Memories, 1976), a book full of simplicity and wisdom, Selimovic makes it clear that his was an extremely dysfunctional family in which the son obtained an "audience" with his dissipated, womanizing father only during special religious feasts such as Bajram, when all six children would line up outside their father's study, waiting their turn to go in and kiss his hand. Selimovic, who suffered before, during, and after such meetings, suggests that this was the beginning of his lifelong hatred of authority. Selimovic also mentions that once, when his illness happened...