Calming the Storm

Meet Byron Majmun-born in Sarajevo, named for the English poet and freedom fighter. He's a poet himself, though Bosnian-a nominal Muslim, a university teacher, husband, soon-to-be father. And an assassin.Now in his thirties, Byron lives with his wife Leila, both of them survivors of the siege of Sarajevo (1992-1996) and the larger Bosnian war. Both lost their families in the war and, as children, clung to one another. But while Leila, now a nurse, has managed to look forward, Byron can only look back. Bitter, cynical, and filled with rage, he dreams again and again of the day the Serbians came to murder his father, rape his sister, and kidnap his mother, sister, and brother, none of whom he has ever seen again. Obsessed with revenge, he has quit teaching and poetry and now works with an underground Bosnian force to hunt down, interrogate, and kill Serbian "Scorpions," war criminals who have been tried in Serbian courts and found not guilty.