Wounded I Am More Awake

Wounded I Am More Awake follows the story of Esad Boskailo, a doctor who survives six concentration camps in Bosnia and emerges with powerful new lessons for healing in an age of genocide.

This gripping account raises questions for healers, survivors, and listeners striving to understand the reality of war and the aftermath of terror. Is it possible to find meaning after enduring crimes against humanity? Can people heal after trauma?

Human rights journalist Julia Lieblich takes the reader through Boskailo's early years under Tito to the wars when friends turned on friends. She documents his harrowing experiences in the camps, where the men he once joined for coffee murder his best friend from childhood.

But the story does not end there. Boskailo moves to the United States and decides to become a psychiatrist so he can guide survivors through the long-term process of restoring hope. Today, inspired by the late psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl, Boskailo uses his own experience to help patients mourn their losses and find meaning in the aftermath of terror.

The book is published by Vanderbilt University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

"A talented journalist and an exceptional psychiatrist team up to write a slim but engrossing volume about...the possibility of healing from torture and other trauma." (Publishers Weekly)

"A clear-eyed gem of a memoir with a message far beyond one man's experience." (The Chicago Tribune)

"Read this book. It will take you where you would rather not go, but you will be better for going there." (Frank Ochberg, MD, founder of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma)