Time Kneels Between Mountains: Amra Pajalic in-conversation with Mirela Cufurovic

Time & Location
07 Nov 2025, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Better Read Than Dead, 265 King St, Newtown NSW 2042, Australia

https://www.betterreadevents.com/events/time-kneels-between-mountains-amra-pajalic-in-conversation-with-mirela-cufurovic

​About The Event
​In a town where survival is a daily battle, there are those who seek justice...

Overnight, Seka T orlak's life as a regular teenager is upended as Srebrenica, her once peaceful town, falls under siege and she faces starvation, shelling, and sniper attacks. When desperately needed antibiotics and food disappear and are sold on the black market, Seka vows to investigate the corruption and bring the culprits to justice.

As the war ravages Srebrenica, Seka's resilience is tested as she navigates loss, fear, and the harsh realities of war. Yet, amidst the devastation, she finds a glimmer of hope as her relationship with Ramo blossoms from friendship to love. But as she fights for justice and love, will Seka triumph, or will the brutal war tear everything she holds dear apart?

Meticulously researched this is a masterful blend of historical fiction and murder mystery, bringing to life one of the most devastating and underrepresented chapters in modern history: the Srebrenica genocide.

The town of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina made history on 11 July 1995, when 8,372 men and boys were slain and buried in mass graves, making it the biggest massacre on European soil since World War II. As a result, this event is historically significant as it is first genocide conviction in Europe since the Holocaust.

Our event space is wheelchair accessible via a stair lift. For any other accessibility questions, please email [email protected].

Amra Pajalic is an award-winning author, educator, and researcher. Her debut novel, The Good Daughter, won the 2009 Melbourne Prize for Literature's Civic Choice Award, re-released as Sabiha's Dilemma (Pishukin Press, 2022). The anthology she co-edited, Growing up Muslim in Australia (Allen and Unwin, 2014, 2019), was shortlisted for the 2015 Children's Book Council of Australia Eve Pownall Award for Information Books. Her memoir Things Nobody Knows But Me (Transit Lounge, 2019) was shortlisted for the 2020 National Biography Award. As a Bosnian author, Pajalic draws on her heritage to craft an own voices narrative that brings authenticity and sensitivity to this harrowing topic. This novel was completed as the creative of component of PhD in Creative Writing thesis examining the role of historical fiction in preserving and interpreting memories of the Bosnian Genocide.

Mirela Cufurovic researches Australian Muslim history at Charles Sturt University and teaches Australian history and literary studies at Western Sydney University. She is one of the current book review editors for History Australia, is part of the Sweatshop Literacy Movement, and sits in the National Assessor Pool for Regional Arts Australia. Mirela has published with Griffith Review, Sudo Journal, and Mona Magazine as well as Public History Review, Chicago Journal of History and The Australian Journal of Islamic Studies. When she is not writing with a large cup of coffee by her side, Mirela spends her time in conversation with Australian authors and historians about their writing lives on Instagram as part of Tea Time with Mirela.