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Author Collects Stories of Young Voices in Wartime

When war came to Sarajevo, 11-year-old Zlata Filipovic's life of piano lessons and tennis matches vanished. She began keeping a diary that chronicled her harrowing experiences.

Over much of the next two years, she hid in her cellar to escape shells and gunfire. After she and her family escaped, her diary won international recognition after it was published as Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Wartime Sarajevo.

Fifteen years later, she's collected an array of young people's war diaries, from World War II to Iraq. Filipovic (pronounced fill-ee-povich) and co-editor Melanie Challenger talk about the book, Stolen Voices.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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