Quiet Flows the Una is the story of a man trying to overcome the personal trauma caused by the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The book covers three time periods, taking in childhood before the war, the battle lines during the war, and the attempt to continue with normal life in a post-conflict society. Through his meditative prose, Faruk Šehić attempts to reconstruct the life of the main character being both a veteran and a poet. At times, he manages to pick up the pieces of his life, but at other times it escapes him.
His memories of the recent war and the killings are “dirty and disgusting”, while he views his present as humdrum and his identity feels incomplete. With the help of his memories, he uses his mind and strength to look for a way out of the maze in which he is confined, acting as both archivist and a chronicler of the past, roles that allow him the opportunity to rebuild everything again.