Slavenka Drakulic (1949- ) is a Croatian journalist, whose novel S. (1999) grew out of her interviews with women who had been raped by Serbian soldiers during the war. During the interviews, it became clear that many of these women were too traumatized to put into words the horror they had experienced. After one such interview, Drakulic writes, "It then occurred to me for the first time, that her story was precisely in what she could not say. And I must find a way to say it for her." The result is a narrative of one composite character, whose experience represents that of thousands.

S., a 29-year-old substitute teacher in a small Bosnian village, is a native of Sarajevo, where she lives with her parents, a Muslim father and a Serbian mother. This mixed ethnic identity, an "impurity" that must be cleansed in the eyes of her captors, results in her being transported to a concentration camp, specifically to the "women's room," a building within the camp housing young, attractive women, forced each night to service the local Serb soldiers. Any resistance on the women's part means death. Her indoctrination consists of being brutally raped by three soldiers. In time she becomes the mistress of the camp commander. Although this privileged position markedly improves her life, inwardly she is torn by self-doubt. She sees herself as despicable since, unlike the other women, she has to strive to please and be agreeable with her captor. The commander has chosen her because she is educated and refined, and he treats her respectfully: "But she cannot conceal from herself that she is sleeping with a murderer."

Eventually she becomes part of a prisoner exchange that permits her to emigrate to Sweden, but her joy is shattered by the realization that she is five months pregnant. She sees her unborn child as "a disease . . . a tumor," the crowning humiliation by her captors that she should bring another of them into the world. She notifies the hospital that she will be giving the child up for adoption. But when the baby is born, she recognizes that she must not try to escape her past but must accept it. With that she turns to nurse her baby.

Asked about the apparent optimism of this ending, the author has replied, "The consequences of accepting a child conceived by rape are grave. The child will have, in a way, a completely false identity. . . . Really, what do you tell such a child? The truth? Imagine the child's horror. I would say that the ending of the novel can be interpreted in several different ways, it is certainly not simply optimistic." From a strictly literary standpoint, S. is not a flawless novel. The writing is somewhat prolix, exhibiting a tendency to tell rather than show, but as a text translating a historical event into a fully human experience, it is a powerful and important work.

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