Overcoming chronic depression through either counseling or medication is tough enough — let alone trying to battle the illness on the front lines of a war.

“Hello to All That” is the engaging and exciting memoir of journalist John Falk’s life-changing journey to war-torn Sarajevo in the early ’90s to act as a radio correspondent for NBC Radio.

Although on the surface it may seem like another war correspondent’s memoir of how bleak and depressing a war zone can be, “Hello to All That” is original because the darkest moments in the book don’t come from Falk’s depiction of the impoverished families living without electricity or running water. In fact, those parts almost come across as the most lively.

The book’s darkest moments stem from Falk’s struggle to keep his life on track amidst a lifelong struggle with intense depression.

The book is almost split into separate tales, one of Falk’s experience’s in Bosnia, the other detailing his bout with the disease.

For example, the book’s first chapter starts off with Falk stepping off his flight from Italy into Bosnia for the first time. The book’s second chapter finds Falk waking up a 12-year-old boy in his parents’ suburban home and explaining his average, middle-class life and how he began to realize he was depressed.

The chapters use this dynamic of switching stories throughout the entire book. One chapter will continue the story of his experiences in Bosnia, then the next will follow his struggle with depression beginning at 12 and continuing until he makes his decision to leave for the war.

What makes this an interesting approach is Falk ends up depicting two characters who are very different from each other.

The Falk of Bosnia is a character who exhibits courage, compassion and zest for adventure while his counterpart, the Falk of suburbia, is a man who can hardly muster up the energy to set foot outside of his bedroom for weeks on end during the most intense bouts of depression.

Falk’s most impressive feat in his writing is his ability to capture the thoughts running through the head of a person dealing with depression.

From the passages where he recalls talking himself out of suicide to the parts where he describes the facade he put up in front of his friends and family, Falk manages to paint himself as a likable, down-to-earth man who is up against great adversity.

What may be even more remarkable than his struggle with depression is his ability to tell his story of wartime reporting experience in an almost comedic tone. Not to say that he turns serious events into laughable ones, but when certain events take a light-hearted turn, Falk handles it in a dignified way.

The few parts where he allows himself to laugh are the most heart-warming simply because Falk is able to pull readers into the dreary, sniper-infested streets of Sarajevo so well that readers may forget that the inhabitants were never granted a moment away from the gunfire and artillery shelling.

“Hello to All That” is a well-written look into the life of a man who came up against two kinds of opposition — mental and physical — and managed to persevere and make it funny at the same time.

“Hello to All That”

By John Falk

Published by: Henry Holt and Co.

304 pages