Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize
Peter Maass went to the Balkans as a reporter at the height of the nightmarish war there, but... read full description
Peter Maass went to the Balkans as a reporter at the height of the nightmarish war there, but... read full description
reviews
Jun 08, 2009
Simon
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While in 1992 I was taking my first trip to Europe, falling in love for the first time, getting my introduction to Pentecostalism and learning to live, people were being exterminated only several hundred miles away from me.
While I was going into my fourth year of high school education in Bulgaria, boys and girls my age were being raped and tortured and murdered and it took me 15 years to find that out. How is it that I knew nothing about that war? How is it I never paid attention to the n More...
While I was going into my fourth year of high school education in Bulgaria, boys and girls my age were being raped and tortured and murdered and it took me 15 years to find that out. How is it that I knew nothing about that war? How is it I never paid attention to the n More...
Nov 24, 2010
About to start this. I've been told this is one of the best non-biased insights about the travesty of the Bosnian war. After having visited quite a lot of Eastern Europe, I've always been interested in this period of time having been alive when when it happened, albeit very young, I was five when the USSR and essentially Yugoslavia dissolved, yet have never really had any concrete knowledge as to why all the hosility and killings came about. Quite hard to swallow that it only ended 15 years ago
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May 01, 2008
Jarome
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I love it when journalists write books to cover a story from a more behind the scenes perspective. None of us will deny that our news-media coverage of events are filtered and sometimes just a joke. However, this not only taught me about the Bosnia-Serbian conflict, okay, 'war', but it gave me yet more insight into the man's-inhumanity-to-man scenario, revolving around the idea of, what people will do and say based, not on what they know, but on what someone else says.
I went through More...
I went through More...
Dec 28, 2011
Eric
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Heartbreaking. Peter's journey through the Bosnian War reminds us that we have not travelled far enough in our journey upon this planet. To see how cultural grudges continue to plague the human race is a disappointment. But to live the terror of it forces us to ask how and why? This is a must read book.
Jan 25, 2009
Tracey
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Accounts of the atrocities of war in Bosnia and Croatia from a journalist's perspective. Tough night-time reading but well worth it for anyone wanting to learn more about this war, or war in general.
May 31, 2008
Kristopher
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The only reason i finished this book was because i just wanted to know the details of the Serbian-Bosnian war. But, it sincerely seems like this book was a first draft by a 17 year old kid that skipped the editor's desk and went straight to print. I find it hard to believe that any editor would have let all these horrible metaphors, digressions and excessive uses of the word "literally" be published, as is.
He made casual remarks that bordered on racist; diverted from th More...
He made casual remarks that bordered on racist; diverted from th More...
Jun 22, 2011
Beth
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I remember reading this book as a teenager and crying throughout it. This book broke my naivete about politics and world affairs.
Sep 28, 2010
Lila
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I read it because we are going on a trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina but it is a book others should read, too. Very sobering.
Jul 14, 2008
Patrick
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Out of all of the books I have recently read pertaining to the war in the Balkans and more specifically in Bosnia, this one is the most clear, concise, and brutally honest one i have come across. Maass shows what it is like to be a journalist during war time, which can include braveness, pettiness, and utter dejection with humanity. As well as explaing the crisis he also brings up questions on human nature that reflect what is happening currently today. A must read for anyone who is interested i
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Oct 31, 2007
Sara
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If you didn't already take with a grain of salt what the U.S. government (or any government, for that matter) tells the press, this book will convince you otherwise. It's a reporter's account of the conflict in Bosnia and how the U.S. government downplayed it and refused to intervene. The author interviewed in person Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic (talk about an evil man!). We'd of course like to think of Hitler's heinous reign as an isolated incident, an exception to the rule, but the Ser
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Dec 17, 2009
Brendan
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Some folks question some of Maass' history, but I'm not qualified to quibble. What I can say is that I've never read a more passionate and exquisitely readable piece of war journalism than this. Sure, Michael Herr's Vietnam War classic Dispatches might qualify as better literature, but it's loads less accessible. For what he loses in style, Maass gains in immediacy: crossing Serb checkpoints or interviewing Muslims in modern-day concentration camps. The narrative is alive with danger but also wi
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Oct 23, 2007
Tae
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Though sadly depressing, this is a stark and vivid protrayal of what our leaders have allowed to happen in the modern age.
I would reccommend this book to anyone who wants an eye opening view on what the UN has failed to do in the past and why we keep failing in places such as Darfur, etc.
Somehow, I wish enough people would read this book that we would actually stand by our convictions.
I would reccommend this book to anyone who wants an eye opening view on what the UN has failed to do in the past and why we keep failing in places such as Darfur, etc.
Somehow, I wish enough people would read this book that we would actually stand by our convictions.
Aug 20, 2008
Annie
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With the recent arrest of the Serbian war criminal, Karadzic some of you might want to read an account of the Serbian-Bosnian-Croation war. This account reads like a novel, and is so heartbreaking. I read it during my senior year in college and it inspired me to focus on international human rights in law school, which lead to my choice to become an immigration attorney.
May 05, 2011
Melissa
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This is a good book to read about humankind failure. How an evil thought begins and is easily spread and used to persuade. This book is a difficult read because it is so graphic... however I do understand the necessities of the gore to understand the depths of the horrors that happened in the Bosnian War.
May 15, 2008
Cory
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This book shed some light on the Bosnian/Serbian conflict of the 90's. Maass (the author) as a journalist tells his tale of atrocity he experiences in Bosnia and why, through a journalist perspective, most of us today couldn't explain what happened in Bosnia.
Apr 14, 2008
angrykitty
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i had to read this for a poli/sci class i took on a whim my freshman year in college. the class was idiotic, but this was a great book.....so great, that i didn't sell it back for beer money. damn.
Feb 06, 2008
Jessica
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Peter Maass writes with the utmost compassion for such a tragic story of suffering. Somehow, he sifts through it all and manages to find sense in it and presents it in a very thoughtful, sensitive way.
Dec 17, 2009
Jamie
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Outstanding account of the genocide conducted during the Yugoslav Civil War in the early 1990s. Maas' writing keeps you turning page after page.
Nov 22, 2007
Shannon
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Amazing book about a part of history that never should have happened. Seeps into your dreams
Sep 28, 2007
Rigel
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how we failed bosnia, just like we're failing darfur. by not acknowledging genocide.
Feb 09, 2012
Feb 07, 2012
Feb 05, 2012
