Charmer Boy Gypsy Girl

One fateful New Year’s Eve in Sarajevo, Bosko and Admira shared a kiss that changed them forever. In December of 1983, just a few months before the Winter Olympics would come to town, these two teenagers found themselves falling in love against the backdrop of a soon-to-be war-torn country.

Victor Harrington’s novel Charmer Boy, Gypsy Girl is based on the true story of Bosko Brkic and Admira Ismic, known as the Romeo and Juliet of Sarajevo. Their story has been covered by writers and filmmakers before, but Harrington gives them a life and a heart that has been, until now, treated more journalistically. In his novel, Bosko and Admira are kids growing into adults, trying to make sense of their own lives while also trying to understand what is happening to the country they both love. And, at the same time, they are falling madly, wildly in love with one another. Perhaps this is best illustrated in the story Bosko tells Admira, a story of an emperor moved to tears by the beauty before him. He tells her of the emperor’s words, “If there is a paradise on earth, it is here. It is here. It is this.” In that moment, readers see Bosko and Admira have found their paradise in one another.