ZLATA FILIPOVIC ("zuh-LAT-uh fi-LEEP-ovich") is a thireen year-old Sarajevan, whose diaries of the war in Bosnia have been published this month as "Zlata's Diary" (Viking). The book begins in August of 1991, with a new school year --fifth grade-- and the trappings of girlhood: piano lessons and tennis. By that spring, Sarajevo was under seige and Zlata's schoolmates were being killed, her family hiding in the basement and abandoned purebred dogs wandered the streets. UNICEF published part of her diaries in a Croat edition; a French publisher then helped Zlata and her family escape Sarajevo and emigrate to France, where the book has become a bestseller.
Copyright 1994 Fresh Air