The Impossible Country: A Journey Through the Last Days of Yugoslavia

by Brian Hall

“A tragic portrait . . . presented with sympathy and frequently with humor . . . [of] a disparate people who were never united except by their resentment of a foreign conqueror.” – Atlantic Monthly

In The Impossible Country , Brian Hall relates his encounters with Serbs, Croats, and Muslims— “real people, likeable people” who are now overcome with suspicion and anxiety about one another. Hall takes the standard explanations, the pundits’ predictions, and the evening news footage and inverts our perceptions of the country, its politics, its history, and its seemingly insoluble animosities.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Travel, Politics, War, Journalism, European History

352 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1994

Reviews

[Merilee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most informative and enjoyable books I've read in a long time. Brian Hall is a novelist and sometime journalist who travelled through the former Yugoslavia in 1991 and got caught in the beginnings of all the violence(that vilonce, unlike the violence of the past 800-1000?? years). By travelling around and talking mainly to people he meets on the street, as well as to some journalist/academic friends of friends, he gives a very "absorbable" taste of why everyone's so fed up with everyone else, and an understanding of why he calls Yugoslavia the impossible country. The NYT called it "Intelligent, witty and full of precious details....a guide to the minds of the peoples of what was once Yugoslavia." These people who were all so much alike in background (many of the Muslims only became Muslims because it made it easier under the Turks, who invaded every few decades.) seem so inclined to point fingers at their neighbors and call them "the other." Hall maintains deep affection for most of the people he meets, while often being laugh-out-loud funny in his descriptions. In his postcript, written in 1993, he quotes a Serbian grocery-store clerk who works in a supermarket near Hall's home in Ithaca, N.Y. "His wife, Vesna, is a Fullbright scholar at Cornell./ She is Slovene, but has lived all her life in Belgrade (Serbia). They have two daughters. Their visas will expire in two months. They cannot return to Belgrade because Vesna, as a Slovene, will not be allowed to return to her post at the university. and Miroslav will be looked at as a "bad Serb" for having married a Sovene, and the two girls will be mistreated at school for being half Slovene. ...He thinks the west has made a big mistage in aceding to the divison of Bosnia along nationalist lines. But, he says, if they are going to divide Bosnia, let them divide it into four parts, not three: on part for the SErbs, one for the Croats, one for the Muslims - and the fourth part for the people who still want to live together...in the soul of Yugoslavia."

I am now going to read Kaplan's book, then Holbrooke's, and finally Rebecca West (while I can still keep the map in my mind...)

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

We in the United States tend to take a parochial Western European view of history. We see England, France, Germany, Italy -- and not much else. Brian Hall's The Impossible Country: A Journey Through the Last Days of Yugoslavia takes us into the sometimes confusing world of the Balkans, where hatreds run high and frequently result in bloodshed.

Brian Hall spent time in Yugoslavia just as the country was beginning to unravel under Slobodan Milosevich, who favored the Serbs over the Croats, Slovenians, Bosnians, Kocovars, Macedonians, Montenegrans and other peoples making up Yugoslavia. Hall was an even-handed reporter who saw the hatreds just when they were beginning to break out into outright warfare. At the end of his trip, he takes a journey through Serbia and Croatia just as war is beginning and the various peoples are opting for independence.

Books like this are extremely useful: It is good to see the beginning of things which, in a few years, reached such a point with massacres that the United States felt it necessary to bomb the Serbians into submission. And the Serbs are not the only ones to blame, though they have a unique ability to act in such a way that the finger of guilt inevitably points to them.

[Fiona · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fascinating piece of research. Hall travels to Croatia, Serbia and Kosovo just as war is breaking out in 1991. He knows the countries and their peoples well as he has travelled there before. He allows the history of these countries and their relationships to be told by the people, enlightening us with historical background throughout. He is a very intelligent writer and leaves us with a mixture of sadness and disgust which is hard to reconcile, particularly In light of our subsequent knowledge of what happened as the war progressed. At times, I became confused at the timeline but it was easy to check out facts on the Internet when I wasn't sure. My only complaint would be that there are no pictures and no map. The latter at least would have been helpful in locating the countries which formed Yugoslavia. .

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only thing thing I've ever read about the break-up of the former Yugoslavia that makes any sense. Hall travels through the country just as it is falling apart, bewildered by how people who had lived side-by-side for decades could turn on each other the way they did. He offers a comprehensible brief history of the country's strategic position which explains why they have been invaded so many times and why they have held onto past enmities so long. It's easy to read and hard to put down. Highly recommended.

[Taylor M · Rating 4 out of 5]

My exposure to the fall of Yugoslavia before reading this book was largely from people who had lived in one country or another, so I knew my understanding was probably pretty biased, but I had no idea the extent of the bitter tensions that had been simmering for hundreds of years.

For anyone who wants to understand the sentiments of everyday people that could lead to such atrocious war crimes, this book gives a well-rounded perspective.

Each group had committed one atrocity or another at some point in history and no hands were completely blameless as some might like you to believe, though what the Serbian nationalists did was unfathomably horrific and certainly deserves no justification.

The shock that something like this could happen in the modern era in “civilized Europe” should be a warning to all of us, especially with white nationalism on the rise in the US. Anytime we let perceived differences further alienate us from others, society as a whole loses. It’s easy to form social bonds (connecting with people you have something in common with) but social bridging (forming connections with people who are different from you) is what really makes society thrive.

[emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t think I am intellectually qualified to rate this book in the way that I usually do, so I’ve based it off of how I felt while reading it.

It was a very moving, symbolic and genius way of telling the story of this (very much indeed) impossible country.

Everything my parents had tried to tell me about what they had gone through and how the people of Yugoslavia felt back then - about each other, about themselves, about the country, about other countries - it was all there, perfectly explained, and much more too.

I kept finding myself scoffing at the book, catching myself saying, “This is impossible!”. And for this, you are a genius, Brian Hall, because the way you structured this book, the things you included, it all creates the perfect image of how it must have felt to be a part of Yugoslavia. The confusion and frustration I felt while reading the book is exactly how it feels to try and understand the situation in itself. To /be/ in the situation itself.

Thank you so much for giving me a clearer vision of what my parents are carrying when they call themselves “Ex-Yugoslavians”.

[Keenan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written if heartbreaking account of the beginning of the end of Yugoslavia, the stories of normal people who haven't fully processed yet that their country is barrelling towards civil war.

The author makes the case early on that one reason there was very little coverage of the lead-up to the civil war was that the situation in the Balkans was so confusing, so perplexing to people who like their histories nicely packaged, that no one outside the Balkans would have bothered to learn the context necessary to understand the religious, ethnic, historical, and cultural divides that eventually brought the nation asunder. By mixing everyday conversations with students and writers and old women with deep memories and politicians along with approachable explanations of hundreds of years of south Slavic history, The Impossible Country successfully manages the task it set out to accomplish. A fantastic written account of a confounding part of the world mixed with gentle touches of humour and wit and empathy, reminding me of Peter Hessler's The Buried in its scope and in its ability to find a tone that captures both the seriousness and the futility of life during a period of extreme turmoil.

[Kenneth P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1991 author Brian Hall had extensive contacts throughout Yugoslavia. He had friends in Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia. He had friends of friends, acquaintances, in Montenegro and Kosovo. These contacts enabled him to travel extensively and to hang out with Yugoslavs of all ethnicities at a time when tensions were building and war seemed a distinct possibility.

As Yugo-politics became poisonous, Hall's emphasis remained with the people around him. His queries among friends were guarded yet focused. People on the street, the bus, the train offered pertinent opinions. A certain clarity emerged: each ethnic group seemed to be fostering a growing cynicism and distrust of other groups.

Leadership was lacking. Serbia's Milosovic and Croatia's Tudgman threw gasoline on the embers of nationalism. Ugly stereotypes sprang from the hearts of Yugoslavs who had lived in peace for decades. It became easy and convenient to categorize people, to file them away into nasty little boxes. A Serb in Belgrade and a Serb in Nis would utter epithets against Muslims with foolish, identical language. Croats and Muslims were at the same game. At one point the author was scribbling into his notebook when a Serb, overlooking, said, "Ah, you Americans are all left-handed." Yes, it became that farcical.

The strangest phenomenon is that all of the stereotyping, pigeon-holing, epithet-hurling that emerged from Serb, Croat, Bosnian-- well, it all seemed to come from the same voice. Eventually they all sounded the same, like a collective Slavic whine. It was as if Yugoslavia had contracted a fatal auto-immune disease that turned against itself, hell-bent on self-destruction. Brian Hall explains none of this. He merely bears witness, skillfully, quietly leaving it on the page for us to see.

Nor does Mr. Hall ignore the beauty of the Balkans. His prose betrays a deep reverence for what was once Yugoslavia. And he does not cheat the reader when it comes to history. The careful reader will come away with a pretty good sense of what took place over the centuries. I say pretty good because there is so much history to digest-- it is complex, apocalyptic, and at times, yeah, downright crazy.

What is not crazy is the careful structure of The Impossible Country. The first half of the book shows the growing erosion of trust between people, the acceleration toward conflict. The last half gives us absurdity, farce and war. But the finest chapter of the book lands precisely in the middle when Mr. Hall spends a day with his friend Mustafa, a Muslim from Mostar, Bosnia. Mustafa drives Hall out into the country where his family owns an ancient cherry orchard. It is the bucolic town of Cim, once entirely Muslim, now 99% Catholic. Mustafa says, jokingly, "I think you need a passport. We're entering Croatia."

It is while picking cherries that Hall sees Yugoslavia as it once was, as it could be. It becomes an idyllic throwback afternoon where the author sees, from the top of a ladder, spread out before him, the city of Mostar which would soon be destroyed from the east by Serbs, from the west by Croats.

Mustafa says, "Five years ago I never thought about who was who. Croat, Serb, Muslim... Why would I care about something like that? I didn't even know what some of my friends were."

Ah, but that was five years ago Mustafa. Clearly It was a shitty five years.

For anyone interested in the break-up of Yugoslavia, The Impossible Country is a great place to start.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dense but readable tale of the last days of Yugoslavia, as the country slid into the horrors of the early nineties. Hall clings to his identity as a travel writer rather than a reporter, both as a disclaimer and at times as a kind of safety position--as things heat up, American reporters become targets, while travel writers are (at least sometimes) just inexplicable. I can't pretend that I can explain the dense, tangled histories of the many ethnic/religious/cultural groups who made up the former country--as people remind Hall over and over, non-Serbs (or Croats, or Muslims, or Albanians, etc.) will never really understand Serbs (or Croats, or Muslims...etc.) The complexities of people's identities are mind-boggling. The same language is called Serbian in one part of the country, Croatian in another. Serbs live in Croatian areas, Croats in Serb areas, and some have lived there for a very long time, or are a substantial ethnic majority--and yet they aren't Croatians or Serbs, they're Serbs or Croatians, and the land they live on is considered Croatian or Serbian based not on who lives there or how long they've lived there, but on its history--except when it isn't. And then there are the Macedonians, and the Dalmatians, and the Bosnians. Hall navigates it all admirably, with humility and compassion, and the frank admission that he, too, is often bemused and baffled at the distinctions. At their best, the people of these regions overlook their differences and intermarry, ignore religious differences, and get along. At their worst they demonize each other and descend into horrible, bloody violence. Like people everywhere, I guess.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this several times following my first trip to Croatia and before I spent over two years in Bosnia teaching English. Without having had a chance to review it in the recent past, I'd recommend it highly to anyone who wants a readable account about the region. It's also nice because Brian Hall talks with normal people.

It was written before the conflicts which probably helps in that at that time there was less material circulating that regurgitated common and simple stereotypes about people. I had an overwhelmingly positive experience in Sarajevo working with a large number of normal people ... I had not come for a job designed to address a specific social issue, and did not spend all day with politicians. I get the sense that many of the books written about the region are written by people who do just that, and as a result really do a disservice not only to people from the region, but to the truth.

The fact that someone is not from the regions definitely does not mean that that person is objective or balanced or even accurate, and as with any topic you need to read more than one book about it to get a better picture. I'm not crazy about the title but if you're going to start with a book about ex-Yugoslavia, this is a good one.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Upon Bill Clinton's tardy decision to admit Bosnian refugees into the USA, my East Rogers Park, Chicago neighborhood was transformed as it has been many times by many groups--Armenians, my own family, Jews, Odessans etc.--during its history by an influx of immigrants. One of them, a student at Loyola University Chicago, and her family became particular friends, leading me to read everything I could find about the history of Yugoslavia and the socio-political circumstances of its dissolution.

This book is one of the more personal accounts of the conflict, written by an American novelist and journalist who was present during some of the events he reports.

[Eric Zadravec · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone interested in niche travel, a country on the brink of civil war would certainly make for a unique destination. This was Brian Hall's intinerary in The Impossible Country: traveling primarily through Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, and Kosovo in 1990/91, documenting the rising ethno-religious tensions throughout the crumbling multi-ethnic tapestry that was Yugoslavia.

By virtue of speaking Serbo-Croatian, Brian Hall offers a far more intimate portrait of nationalistic sentiment in 1990s Yugoslavia, as felt by everyday people on the ground. His discussions with various Croats, Bosniaks, Serbs, and Albanians gives insight into how ordinary people can learn to stereotype, distrust, and ultimately hate and kill their neighbours. Educated people speak how they can no longer talk to the 'Serb/Croat/Muslim', on account of history, national temperament, or cultural incompatibility; the most dogmatic in society turn mistrust into hatred; politicians capitalize on fear of the other, and ride to popularity promising protection; and ordinary people are sent to kill each other.

Politicians however, work in concert with the people. Fear and hatred is more often capitalized and catalyzed by political leaders than created by them. As many of Hall's conversations show, fear and mistrust come naturally to the ordinary citizen: few people exercise the rationality or compassion to look past the rhetorical labels and attitudes that shut out an opposing group as 'the other'. Compounded by real and perceived histories of mistreatment and atrocity, political moods harden to conclude that coexisting with the other is impossible, either as a minority group seperating itself from the dominant nation-state, or a nation-state excluding and expelling a minority group. A blueprint for exactly what occured later in Yugoslavia, along with numerous other conflicts in the latter half of the 20th century.

Brian Hall's book thus gives an excellent portrait of Yugoslavia on the brink of civil war, and the attitudes of mistrust that had hardened in its constituent nationalities. Moreover, Hall's book shows that what occured in Yugoslavia was not so singular to the region - "Can you believe this is happening? In Europe? In the 20th century?" asks a Croat. "Of all the centuries and continents to mention," comments Hall. Hall nevertheless notes many of the unique national histories and circumstances that gave the Yugoslav civil war its particular colours. With engaging commentary, a refreshing degree of self-reflection, and a balanced picture of the peoples involved, The Impossible Country is an excellent English-language book for understanding Yugoslavia on the brink of civil war.

[Joshua Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

How much of Yugoslavia’s present turmoil could be blamed on its recent peasant past, and on that past’s tribal culture? Roads had been built, and the world had been enlarged. Cimci had become Herzegovinians, who scorned the Bosnians as šljivari or ‘plum-eaters’, because figs and cherries could not grow in the colder climate. Then they all became Bosnians, and they said that when the Turks came, many Bosnians fled into the sea and drowned, but those with empty heads floated, and became the Dalmatians.

Highways joined republic to republic, but the way between the faiths remained narrow, the gate straight. Dalmatians expanded to Croats – and stopped. Cim’s blue piping was gone, and the cimci with it, but the Muslims, far from giving up the fez, were returning to it.

Yugoslavia had tried to move into the ‘modern’ world, in which you gave a job to a stranger as likely as to a brother, but it had fallen short in the new transition, and few Yugoslavs, even if they lamented the tyranny of ‘influence’, had much respect for cold concept that ignoring your own was some kind of virtue. The peasant tribalisms lingered. Perhaps they could be considered the genetic predisposition to cancer, while religion was the insult to the cell that triggered the disease.

‘Man leans on man, as trees on trees,’ runs a Yugoslav proverb. It is a comforting image. But just when the wrong wind comes the whole forest blows down’. (230)

A forest is made of trees? A nation of its people?

Brian Hall travels through Yugoslavia the moment it dissolves and accidentally ends up with a fabulous work of political reporting that reads as a travel diary. Writing with the impartiality of a passer-through, I enjoyed his lens, broadened by interlocutors of every nationality within former-Yugoslavia:

‘Look: Serbian culture and Croatian culture are fundamentally different. Croats are mercantile, individualistic. Serbs are totalitarian. There’s an old saying: “When it comes to a fight, Croats are legalistic. In the Habsburg Empire, the law actually meant something. In the Ottoman Empire it never did. And so you have today’s Serbia, which is basically a Fascist state.’

- Chuck, Croat New Yorker with Muslim family, married to a Serb, (306).

Much of this is tragic, as all wars are, but the insight gained regarding the paradoxes of Balkan identity: a patchwork of different histories, religions, language, culture and empires that Tito optimistically (and despotically) tried weave together through the maixm 'Brotherhood & Unity’ is invaluable. Unfortunately, this is a case of once a string comes loose, the whole fabric unravels. A really fascinating read.

[Erkin Unlu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started reading this book when I and my wife had to stay in Belgrade for eleven nights. Fascinating but really sad story of how a country becomes a pariah in front of the world by their very own hands. One thing stuck with me, treat your neighbours right, and let them go when they want to.

[Nik Rapparport · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5. Great storytelling, focuses on the human level while still providing important background info, and woven together into a compelling narrative with room for plenty of humor throughout.

[Paige · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Keval · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably one of the best books on this subject. You hear the voices of ordinary Yugoslavs as the country slowly descends into chaos and breaks apart. I feel Brian Hall was pretty impartial in telling his story, and I like the fact that he shows how nationalisms and the fear of the Other were prevalent across Yugoslavia, not just on one side or the other. He also gives a historical context to what transpired in the 1990s, which I feel is crucial in understanding why things happened the way they did.
What was heartbreaking, considering I'm reading this over 20 years after the conflict, was one person's optimism that Sarajevo would not be harmed, because every street has a Croat, a Bosniak, a Serb living side by side. You couldn't possibly risk killing one of your own in an attack, this person said. Famous last words, sadly.

[Pete Diamessis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was fortunate enough to have Brian Hall as a neighbor when I first moved to Ithaca. This book is a riveting account of the last days of former Yugoslavia, told by an objective American observer who lives among all the different ethnic groups. Possibly, I felt a strong identification with the book because of Greek roots. Nonetheless, it's a super-fascinating text and the author does reach the dramatic conclusion that the Balkans are too complex for Americans to understand.

[Ericka · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the best books for understanding the ex-Yu countries; however, Hall clearly had come with an agenda and almost forces certain people to act the way one would expect. It's bordering on entrapment. While I want to urge everyone to read this book, try and get a used copy or borrow one. His methods are highly unprofessional and put a lot of people in danger.

[Judy Decaigny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intriguing views of the Yugoslavian people just as the country was falling apart and about to engage in war. Great read.

[Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author repeatedly states to the various people he meets. "I am not a journalist; I am a travel writer." This is a beautiful and harrowing portrait of the peoples of the Balkans just before the Balkan wars started. It gives a snapshot of how the various groups of people were feeling then and how they lived their lives. It gave me a good sense of what was happening, even if it was short of historical information. I have a better understanding of who is who and where these people lived (sort of - they all seemed all mixed together throughout the former Yugoslavia).

The author does give some historical context to complement and help explain the ongoing situations and the values of the peoples. Perhaps a little more historical context would have been nicer. There are times that the conversations he has with various people tend to go off into friendly or humorous patter and the author really don't address the issues at hand, but then again, these conversations add the portrait of the people we learn about through the author.

So, while I would have like to get a little more background that might explain the hell was going on over there, I'm glad the author didn't start writing long diatribes about peace treaties and political points of view and troop movements. Important stuff, but that info can be found in other books. He is after all, only a travel writer. And this proses is much more enjoyable to read than reading about the topics mentioned just above.

Interestingly enough, this book was published just shortly after the war started, so at this time of publication, the author and the people involved didn't know the outcome of all that had befallen the area. So, there is no real follow up to how the war concluded and what that means for all the peoples of the region. Still a great snapshot of a certain place in a certain time.

[Randall Harrison · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a difficult book to read. Balkan Ghosts is one of my favorite books of all time. My son read this book at college and recommended it. Can't say I found it was edifying and page-turning as he did. Don't think it has aged well.

The author describes himself repeatedly as a "travel writer". As a travel book, it has a lot of material about the characters he met; that personal info doesn't really add to the narrative about the places he visited. Granted, his descriptions about the ethnic, religious, political backgrounds of the people he meets does give some flavor to his travel journey. However, the over-reliance on the characters distracts from his narrative about the places he visited. Don't feel I know much more about the area after reading this book than I did before reading it.

I made it through but don't recommend this for anybody trying to understand the former Yugoslavia. For that I'd say read Rebecca West, Robert Kaplan or Richard Holbrooke's stories of the diplomatic efforts to end the war. Can't say I found this one worth the time or effort.

[Mleczny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Escribir sobre un batiburrillo étnico, histórico, social, político y cultural como son los Balcanes en general y la extinta Yugoslavia en particular no es sencillo. Brian Hall usa un razonable conocimiento de la zona y sus complejidades (construida en base a viajes anteriores, lecturas y el aprendizaje del idioma) para crear una lectura interesante, con historias de todo tipo que, en su conjunto, ayudan a comprender la complejidad del país.
El manejo del idioma le permite interaccionar con la población en unas semanas claves para la independencia de Eslovenia y el desencadenamiento de las guerras que azotaron Yugoslavia.
Tiene momentos realmente buenos, como la descripción de la complejidad de Bosnia ("cómo se dice tal cosa en su lengua?", en vez de "cómo se dice tal cosa en serbio/croata"?) aunque, en mi opinión, peca un poco de parcialidad occidental.
No consigue abarcar la dificultad del problema, pero ayuda a entender un poco mejor esa zona tan cercana, a la vez que lejana (8/10)

[Chris Wares · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading Hall's exploration of Romania and Bulgaria and hanging out in Hungary but found this less enjoyable. It is a good piece of travel writing but the subject matter is harder work.

Visiting Yugoslavia just before war broke out Hall documents how seemingly peace loving, sensible Serbs, Croats and Bosnians descended into war. He describes the various points of view and how people who began as tolerant Yugoslavs found themselves slipping into factionalism.

Balkan factionalism is both a dark and bewildering topic. This book maybe helped describe the complexity of the subject and how history has coloured modern prejudices but it doesn't really provide answers. Probably because there aren't any,

[Mimi · Rating 4 out of 5]

written in the early 90's, the author travels all over the former Yugoslavia interviewing and befriending people from all the different religions, races and countries as the war is breaking out. All the reasons for the fighting are reflected in their opinions. I wish it could compare to Rebecca West's famous "Black Lamb & Gray Falcon" from the late 30's, but that is still the best book I've ever read about this region. Still this book is very enlightening.

[Paula Yerke · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Impossible Country is a perfect name for this book. The author traveled throughout Yugoslavia before it's unrest speaking to all sorts of citizens. The inability of the people to live together really does strike me as impossible and tragic and maddening and pathetic and, and, and...
I found this a difficult book to read probably because I am not very familiar with Croats, Serbs, Albanians, etc. I am glad I read it but I was glad when it was over.

[Jill Poulsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is it ok to mark it as read if I didn't really finish it? I can appreciate what the author was trying to do here, taking us with him on his amazingly fortuitous trip on the eve of the disbanding of Yugoslavia.
But this is a perfect example of too much information....but yet not enough. Too much information about conversations with people, but not enough background information to understand why the conversations may have been significant.

[Brad Howard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Timing is everything, and the author had impeccable timing for his trip. This book is at its best when relaying his first hand interactions with local residents. It dragged a little while he was recounting his time in Sarajevo and the book strayed from its strengths to a more theoretical examination. That said, I think it’s an excellent companion to Kaplan’s Balkan Ghosts and, of course, West’s Black Lamb and Grey Falcon.

[Ronald Wise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, how I wish I had read this book when it first came out. Brian Hall’s conversations with all those people he met and knew in Yugoslavia explained so much of what happened there in the 1990s. Their opinions and actions during Hall’s earlier visits, and how they changed during his 1992 visit – as Yugoslavia began to crumble, nationalist leaders came to power, and the fighting began – explain so much of what dismayed me so back then. 

[Emeyté · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sublime, objetivo, incisivo, riguroso, divertido, inteligente, bien escrito y rico en matices sin perder por ello un ápice de accesibilidad. Quizá la mejor mirada externa que jamás he visto sobre Yugoslavia. Infravalorada obra, imprescindible para comprender el tema en su (a veces, aparentemente) inabarcable profundidad y complejidad.

Pienso tenerlo en mi mesita de noche tal y como los juristas tienen el Código Penal sobre la mesa a la hora de ejercer su profesión.