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Love Thy Neighbor: A Story of War
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 this book is not traditional war reportage. Maass examines how an ordinary Serb could wake up one morning and shoot his neighbor, once a friend--then rape that neighbor's wife. He conveys the desperation that makes a Muslim beg the United States to bomb his own city in order to end the misery. And Maass does not falter at the spectacle of U.N. soldiers shining searchlights on fleeing refugees--who are promptly gunned down by snipers waiting in the darkness. Love Thy Neighbor gives us an unflinching vision of a late-20th-century hell that is also a scathing inquiry into the worst extremes of human nature. Like Michael Herr's Dispatches (also available in Vintage paperback), it is an utterly gripping book that will move and instruct readers for years to come.
Peter Maass went to the Balkans as a reporter at the height of the nightmarish war there, but this book is not traditional war reportage. Maass examines how an ordinary Serb could wake up one morning and shoot his neighbor, once a friend--then rape that neighbor's wife. He conveys the desperation that makes a Muslim beg the United States to bomb his own city in order to end the misery. And Maass does not falter at the spectacle of U.N. soldiers shining searchlights on fleeing refugees--who are promptly gunned down by snipers waiting in the darkness. Love Thy Neighbor gives us an unflinching vision of a late-20th-century hell that is also a scathing inquiry into the worst extremes of human nature. Like Michael Herr's Dispatches (also available in Vintage paperback), it is an utterly gripping book that will move and instruct readers for years to come.
320 pages, Paperback
First published February 27, 1996
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February 20, 2013
I can genuinely only think of two books which have made me want to cry.
The first was My War Gone By, I Miss it So, which is Anthony Loyd's brilliant story of covering the wars in Bosnia and Chechnya, The second is this book, another reporter's story of covering the Balkan conflict.
Loyd's book focused on horrific stories of personal, human loss, something which is inescapable in books about the disintegration of Yugoslavia, but Peter Maass's book - as you might expect for one written in 1995, so close to the events - also conveys in depressingly stark terms the extent of the horrible failure of the United Nations, the US, the European powers, the 'civilised' West, to do anything to help while Bosnia was being torn to pieces.
Maass makes it quite clear where his loyalties lie, whose side he is on, and you could say that that is to some extent an abrogation of the responsibility to impartiality that you expect of a journalist, but the fact is, sometimes the distinction between good and so bad is so sharp, that you have to be 'biased'. The failure of greater powers to understand and admit this is the depressing theme of the earlier years of the war in Bosnia.
This book is fantastically written, conveying not only the well-covered horrors of the war, such as the snipers picking off civilians on Sniper's Alley in Sarajevo, or the re-emergence of concentration camps at places like Omarska, but also the sheer mind-blowing insanity of the crisis we stood by and watched on the edge of Europe.
A British soldier sums up the situation brilliantly succinctly, in three words, as he and Maass watch an overweight pensioner cycle, at snails pace, past a firefight between Croatian paramilitaries and the Bosnian Army - "Bosnian mind fuck".
Unfortunately, one of the most prolific deliverers of 'mind fucks' was the United Nations, and, even with the benefit of almost twenty years worth of hindsight, it is hard not to be shocked and depressed as the extent of the negligent failure not only to intervene, but even to acknowledge openly some of the war crimes which went on under their noses, is laid bare.
What are we to think, for example, of the way the United Nations allowed a situation to develop where, every night for months, they stopped Bosnians trying to escape the siege of Sarajevo by crossing from one side of the airport's runway to the other, the airpot marking the boundary of the siege. Effectively, stopping people from escaping the slow, systematic murder of a city.
As if that were not bad enough, not only would they stop these people desperate to escape, they'd also stop people crossing the other way to get food into the city. The food would then be confiscated, and ultimately end up with the Serbian forces.
As if that wasn't enough, when the UN forces stopped the would-be escapees / food smugglers, they'd do so by bathing them in light from their searchlights, at which point, Serbian forces at the end of the runway would take the opportunity afforded by the light to shoot them.
That's United Nations soldiers illuminating refugees so they can be shot by the forces besieging their city.
A really engrossing, upsetting read, and it is depressingly difficult to conclude we've learned much in the intervening two decades.
The first was My War Gone By, I Miss it So, which is Anthony Loyd's brilliant story of covering the wars in Bosnia and Chechnya, The second is this book, another reporter's story of covering the Balkan conflict.
Loyd's book focused on horrific stories of personal, human loss, something which is inescapable in books about the disintegration of Yugoslavia, but Peter Maass's book - as you might expect for one written in 1995, so close to the events - also conveys in depressingly stark terms the extent of the horrible failure of the United Nations, the US, the European powers, the 'civilised' West, to do anything to help while Bosnia was being torn to pieces.
Maass makes it quite clear where his loyalties lie, whose side he is on, and you could say that that is to some extent an abrogation of the responsibility to impartiality that you expect of a journalist, but the fact is, sometimes the distinction between good and so bad is so sharp, that you have to be 'biased'. The failure of greater powers to understand and admit this is the depressing theme of the earlier years of the war in Bosnia.
This book is fantastically written, conveying not only the well-covered horrors of the war, such as the snipers picking off civilians on Sniper's Alley in Sarajevo, or the re-emergence of concentration camps at places like Omarska, but also the sheer mind-blowing insanity of the crisis we stood by and watched on the edge of Europe.
A British soldier sums up the situation brilliantly succinctly, in three words, as he and Maass watch an overweight pensioner cycle, at snails pace, past a firefight between Croatian paramilitaries and the Bosnian Army - "Bosnian mind fuck".
Unfortunately, one of the most prolific deliverers of 'mind fucks' was the United Nations, and, even with the benefit of almost twenty years worth of hindsight, it is hard not to be shocked and depressed as the extent of the negligent failure not only to intervene, but even to acknowledge openly some of the war crimes which went on under their noses, is laid bare.
What are we to think, for example, of the way the United Nations allowed a situation to develop where, every night for months, they stopped Bosnians trying to escape the siege of Sarajevo by crossing from one side of the airport's runway to the other, the airpot marking the boundary of the siege. Effectively, stopping people from escaping the slow, systematic murder of a city.
As if that were not bad enough, not only would they stop these people desperate to escape, they'd also stop people crossing the other way to get food into the city. The food would then be confiscated, and ultimately end up with the Serbian forces.
As if that wasn't enough, when the UN forces stopped the would-be escapees / food smugglers, they'd do so by bathing them in light from their searchlights, at which point, Serbian forces at the end of the runway would take the opportunity afforded by the light to shoot them.
That's United Nations soldiers illuminating refugees so they can be shot by the forces besieging their city.
A really engrossing, upsetting read, and it is depressingly difficult to conclude we've learned much in the intervening two decades.
May 1, 2012
The war the world ignored and then forgot. Peter Maass was a war correspondent for the Washington Post and he covered the war in Bosnia in the 1990s. This isn't about military campaigns though, it's stories of war, about ordinary people caught up in something horrific.
When Serbia invaded Bosnia, the Bosnians appealed for help from Europe and America and were fobbed off. The Serbian propaganda machine, meanwhile, spewed out tales of Bosnians bombing their own cities for sympathy, Bosnians shooting their own and blaming the Serbs -- even the mass executions were blamed on Bosnia.
The book is certainly biased (in favour of Bosnia) but I don't have a problem with that. From first-hand accounts, evidence, and war criminals since, it's pretty much accepted that the majority of the atrocities were committed by Serbs. This isn't an easy book to read; it made me profoundly sad, not in a superficial "oh puppy abandoned by the side of the road" sort of way, but in a deep way, one that can engender hatred. But I wanted to learn more about the war, and how it affected Bosnia, and this seemed a good book to achieve that.
I love Bosnia. I have a cap that says that, and it's true. It's a beautiful country, with friendly, open people who are rebuilding their lives. It's not a comfortable country to visit, even now (we spent a few weeks there in 2008), but it's a rewarding one. There are still many, many villages where the occupants cannot return because of the (mainly unmapped) landmines. You see the signs warning of them everywhere - along main roads, in villages, outside a ruined house, in a farmer's field, in the mountains, and right in the centre of major towns such as Banja Luka and Jayce. One of the things that struck me most when we were there in 2008 was how everyone was getting along. There was none of the animosity and open feuding that even now plagues the factions in Ireland. I asked our Bosnian friend about this. How do people sit down and drink coffee with their Serbian neighbour? That same Serbian may have raped, maimed, tortured, killed. How do they shove it under the rug and sit down without hatred? Was it all glossed over, I wondered. Did it still fester away underneath. No, said our Bosnian friend. The war ended, they just stopped, sat down and drank coffee together.
I was hoping for greater understanding from reading this book. In some ways, I did get that. I know more history, more about humans in war time, more about what drives ordinary people to do terrible things. I know more about beautiful, battered Bosnia than I did before, but I'm not much wiser about how to forgive.
When Serbia invaded Bosnia, the Bosnians appealed for help from Europe and America and were fobbed off. The Serbian propaganda machine, meanwhile, spewed out tales of Bosnians bombing their own cities for sympathy, Bosnians shooting their own and blaming the Serbs -- even the mass executions were blamed on Bosnia.
The book is certainly biased (in favour of Bosnia) but I don't have a problem with that. From first-hand accounts, evidence, and war criminals since, it's pretty much accepted that the majority of the atrocities were committed by Serbs. This isn't an easy book to read; it made me profoundly sad, not in a superficial "oh puppy abandoned by the side of the road" sort of way, but in a deep way, one that can engender hatred. But I wanted to learn more about the war, and how it affected Bosnia, and this seemed a good book to achieve that.
I love Bosnia. I have a cap that says that, and it's true. It's a beautiful country, with friendly, open people who are rebuilding their lives. It's not a comfortable country to visit, even now (we spent a few weeks there in 2008), but it's a rewarding one. There are still many, many villages where the occupants cannot return because of the (mainly unmapped) landmines. You see the signs warning of them everywhere - along main roads, in villages, outside a ruined house, in a farmer's field, in the mountains, and right in the centre of major towns such as Banja Luka and Jayce. One of the things that struck me most when we were there in 2008 was how everyone was getting along. There was none of the animosity and open feuding that even now plagues the factions in Ireland. I asked our Bosnian friend about this. How do people sit down and drink coffee with their Serbian neighbour? That same Serbian may have raped, maimed, tortured, killed. How do they shove it under the rug and sit down without hatred? Was it all glossed over, I wondered. Did it still fester away underneath. No, said our Bosnian friend. The war ended, they just stopped, sat down and drank coffee together.
I was hoping for greater understanding from reading this book. In some ways, I did get that. I know more history, more about humans in war time, more about what drives ordinary people to do terrible things. I know more about beautiful, battered Bosnia than I did before, but I'm not much wiser about how to forgive.
December 10, 2023
Shocking and heartbreaking. An unvarnished and first hand view of the Bosnian War that set neighbor against neighbor in a wild and unrestrained ferocity in the 1990s.
November 10, 2018
An astonishing account of the war in Bosnia that is perhaps the best piece of conflict journalism or literature that I've ever read. Peter Maass spent several years covering that ugly war at a very intimate level and has produced a book that is a genuine classic. Even two decades later, with many other conflicts having come and gone, this book contains human stories and lessons that are timeless. Maass documents many unbelievable, tragic and beautiful personal stories and also offers poignant reflections on the nature of journalistic intrusion into the lives of others. Perhaps most importantly however, he articulates just how absurd the notion of "ancient hatreds" or inevitability is in any war. There is a beastly nature hiding beneath the surface of every society and not everyone agrees that the statute of limitations has expired on redressing ancient grievances. The war that destroyed Bosnia has lessons and warnings that are universal and continue to haunt us.
The failure of the international community in the face of Bosnia's horror is also articulated in painful detail. The Bosnians were ultimately forced to accept the terms of a war of aggression that had been waged against them, with diplomats from the so-called civilized countries acting as handmaidens to the project of genocidal Serb militias on the ground. Maass's book gives an account from the lowest level of the conflict to the highest, even providing surreal interviews with Milosevic and others. I was humbled by the level of detail at all levels that he managed to glean and would argue that this makes the book a truly definitive account.
On top of everything else the writing in the book is very beautiful and evocative. Its a genuine page turner that I couldn't put down. I highly recommend Love Thy Neighbor to anyone, whether they are interested in Bosnia, armed conflict or the human condition.
The failure of the international community in the face of Bosnia's horror is also articulated in painful detail. The Bosnians were ultimately forced to accept the terms of a war of aggression that had been waged against them, with diplomats from the so-called civilized countries acting as handmaidens to the project of genocidal Serb militias on the ground. Maass's book gives an account from the lowest level of the conflict to the highest, even providing surreal interviews with Milosevic and others. I was humbled by the level of detail at all levels that he managed to glean and would argue that this makes the book a truly definitive account.
On top of everything else the writing in the book is very beautiful and evocative. Its a genuine page turner that I couldn't put down. I highly recommend Love Thy Neighbor to anyone, whether they are interested in Bosnia, armed conflict or the human condition.
June 1, 2008
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 the story of the Bosnian plight to talk about himself; used an ocean of terrible comparisons... etc.
"My hopes are with Emir, but I am not hopeful". Seriously.
He made casual remarks that bordered on racist; diverted from the story of the Bosnian plight to talk about himself; used an ocean of terrible comparisons... etc.
"My hopes are with Emir, but I am not hopeful". Seriously.
June 8, 2009
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 news, never took interest in what was happing in Bosnia? How? How come I turned a blind eye to the grizzly events occurring in a land where people spoke Slavic language similar to my own, had features similar to mine, shared history similar to the one of my county? How can I have been so ignorant of the genocide in Bosnia?
Then, in the winter of 1992 I came to the United States and looking back now I find I wasn't the only one guilty of ignorance. For three years (1992-1995) United Nations, countries like Britain, France, Russia and of course, the USA, looked to resolved the conflict by ignoring the direct problem in the region. Peaceful solution is what everyone was talking about and looking for, and all the while men, women, and children died by torture, by fire, by knives to their throats. Over 200,000 people. 200,000 died in this conflict and having read Peter Maass' book I feel disgusted with myself, with humanity in general.
I suspect there were hundreds of other conflicts that occurred and I missed. I know there were many more that history sheltered away from humanity and perhaps I'll never learn about their victims, but having read this book and having learned of the dangerous games politicians and people with power played, I'm left with a nauseating feeling of shame. Shame for being a human and for possessing the realization that evil is something people grow inside, something they cultivate and feed of. For all of our 100,000 years of civilization we have nothing to show except death, destruction and deceit. Is this what we should be proud of? Is this the meaning of life?
I recommend this book to everyone. It's hard to find stories out there that are so open, so raw, so real in their context that make readers seriously wonder what society, civilization, morality and ethics really mean. Mr. Maass, thank you for being so honest.
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 news, never took interest in what was happing in Bosnia? How? How come I turned a blind eye to the grizzly events occurring in a land where people spoke Slavic language similar to my own, had features similar to mine, shared history similar to the one of my county? How can I have been so ignorant of the genocide in Bosnia?
Then, in the winter of 1992 I came to the United States and looking back now I find I wasn't the only one guilty of ignorance. For three years (1992-1995) United Nations, countries like Britain, France, Russia and of course, the USA, looked to resolved the conflict by ignoring the direct problem in the region. Peaceful solution is what everyone was talking about and looking for, and all the while men, women, and children died by torture, by fire, by knives to their throats. Over 200,000 people. 200,000 died in this conflict and having read Peter Maass' book I feel disgusted with myself, with humanity in general.
I suspect there were hundreds of other conflicts that occurred and I missed. I know there were many more that history sheltered away from humanity and perhaps I'll never learn about their victims, but having read this book and having learned of the dangerous games politicians and people with power played, I'm left with a nauseating feeling of shame. Shame for being a human and for possessing the realization that evil is something people grow inside, something they cultivate and feed of. For all of our 100,000 years of civilization we have nothing to show except death, destruction and deceit. Is this what we should be proud of? Is this the meaning of life?
I recommend this book to everyone. It's hard to find stories out there that are so open, so raw, so real in their context that make readers seriously wonder what society, civilization, morality and ethics really mean. Mr. Maass, thank you for being so honest.
March 24, 2021
If surrealism had not existed, Bosnia would have invented it.
This book has been sitting on my shelf for a long time. No doubt, it was one of those books that I bought over 15 years ago when I was about to get on a plane and head to work at an international court that was set up to make belated and paltry judicial amends for the war that destroyed Yugoslavia and thousands of its people. I guess I let it sit on my shelf because so much of my day is already taken up with mucking through the endless tall weeds of that war - no need to read about it on my down time. I am glad I finally picked it up. It's a fantastic journalist’s account (I want to specify that because now there are so many fantastic first-hand accounts by those who lived through the war that should be read).
This is a tough book to get through. The accounts Maass gives of the horrors of the war are startling - as they should be. I have had many moments in my professional life of going through testimony of victims and being utterly dumfounded at the level of violence for violence sake that was perpetrated. Maass truly captures that level of brutality in the accounts that he details in the book. Too often, with the level of news dump that we receive on a daily basis, there is a willingness or need, perhaps, to turn away and not see past numbers to names and stories. Maass really tries to get at that heart - every number of dead is a person with a history and a life that had been full of those details that make up our own daily existence. He tries to personalise the war while recognising that his job as a journalist has also led to a level of sensationalism of the atrocities that were being committed.
Beyond the brutality, Maass also strives to breakdown the absurdities of the war, often comparing real-life characters he meets with the fictional characters of Catch-22. I really liked this aspect of the book because he is not wrong - the absurdities I have heard from friends and loved ones here in Bosnia are astounding. I can't say this war is unique, but there is definitely something Heller-esque about this war that pitted neighbours, friends, and loved ones against one another. Not to mention the "leaders" who waged this war - Milošević just wanted personal power, nothing else, and he fanned the flames of nationalism and killed thousands to get it. He no more believed in a greater Serbia than I believe in the tooth fairy.
And, of course, the huge absurdity of the international community twisting like a pretzel to not get involved while inadvertently tripping over their own feet and ending up helping oppress and kill those they were meant to protect. Maass rightfully calls out the UN:
Integrity is like virginity; you can't get it back once it is gone, and the UN lost it in Bosnia.
and the western leaders like Clinton, Major, and Mitterand who utterly utterly failed Bosnia.
Bosnia, in many ways, has been forgotten. A war on European soil that barely registers a blip in the annals of history in many parts of the world. Maass sums up in the epilogue the danger of this ability to shutter, compartmentalise, and forget this war:
What happened in Bosnia is not a Balkan freak show but a violent process of national breakdown at the hands of political manipulators. The dynamics of fear and loathing between people of different backgrounds - ethnic or religious or economic - are not as unique or complex as we might believe. Violent breakdowns can occur in virtually any country during times of economic hardship, political transition or moral infirmity; such troubles create opportunities for the manipulators, and the manipulators create opportunities for the wild beast.
This book has been sitting on my shelf for a long time. No doubt, it was one of those books that I bought over 15 years ago when I was about to get on a plane and head to work at an international court that was set up to make belated and paltry judicial amends for the war that destroyed Yugoslavia and thousands of its people. I guess I let it sit on my shelf because so much of my day is already taken up with mucking through the endless tall weeds of that war - no need to read about it on my down time. I am glad I finally picked it up. It's a fantastic journalist’s account (I want to specify that because now there are so many fantastic first-hand accounts by those who lived through the war that should be read).
This is a tough book to get through. The accounts Maass gives of the horrors of the war are startling - as they should be. I have had many moments in my professional life of going through testimony of victims and being utterly dumfounded at the level of violence for violence sake that was perpetrated. Maass truly captures that level of brutality in the accounts that he details in the book. Too often, with the level of news dump that we receive on a daily basis, there is a willingness or need, perhaps, to turn away and not see past numbers to names and stories. Maass really tries to get at that heart - every number of dead is a person with a history and a life that had been full of those details that make up our own daily existence. He tries to personalise the war while recognising that his job as a journalist has also led to a level of sensationalism of the atrocities that were being committed.
Beyond the brutality, Maass also strives to breakdown the absurdities of the war, often comparing real-life characters he meets with the fictional characters of Catch-22. I really liked this aspect of the book because he is not wrong - the absurdities I have heard from friends and loved ones here in Bosnia are astounding. I can't say this war is unique, but there is definitely something Heller-esque about this war that pitted neighbours, friends, and loved ones against one another. Not to mention the "leaders" who waged this war - Milošević just wanted personal power, nothing else, and he fanned the flames of nationalism and killed thousands to get it. He no more believed in a greater Serbia than I believe in the tooth fairy.
And, of course, the huge absurdity of the international community twisting like a pretzel to not get involved while inadvertently tripping over their own feet and ending up helping oppress and kill those they were meant to protect. Maass rightfully calls out the UN:
Integrity is like virginity; you can't get it back once it is gone, and the UN lost it in Bosnia.
and the western leaders like Clinton, Major, and Mitterand who utterly utterly failed Bosnia.
Bosnia, in many ways, has been forgotten. A war on European soil that barely registers a blip in the annals of history in many parts of the world. Maass sums up in the epilogue the danger of this ability to shutter, compartmentalise, and forget this war:
What happened in Bosnia is not a Balkan freak show but a violent process of national breakdown at the hands of political manipulators. The dynamics of fear and loathing between people of different backgrounds - ethnic or religious or economic - are not as unique or complex as we might believe. Violent breakdowns can occur in virtually any country during times of economic hardship, political transition or moral infirmity; such troubles create opportunities for the manipulators, and the manipulators create opportunities for the wild beast.
abandoned
May 28, 2018I love reading about Yugoslavia, but I have zero time for a book that within less than ten percent packs stuff like this:
- the author comparing himself to someone who has just discovered they have "the AIDS virus" (sic) when finding himself in front of a Serbian warlord who could kill him. I know that this was published in 1996, but come on.
- Talking about the pilot of the plane that's taking him to Sarajevo, the author says that "pilots of transport planes wanted to be ace fighters but didn't make the cut at flight school", so they like flying at a high altitude and do a steep descent into the airport at the last minute for "cheap thrills" (although Maass himself said just a sentence before that this was done to avoid Serbian artillery for as long as possible). Really, landing into a besieged city is "cheap thrills"?
- While on the same plane, a Belgian crew member observes that the war in Bosnia means that the dream of a united Europe is falling apart, and that "this is like Africa", so the author explains that Belgium is a "simple version of Yugoslavia" and that Flemings and Walloons "are not birds" but different peoples within Belgium (you don't say).
Then the plane starts back to leave Sarajevo, and he comments that he's being "left behind in Africa".
Just like another reviewer, I'm asking myself where the hell was the editor on this book.
And while I understand that it's meant as a journey through which Maass (who didn't know anything about the country/ies before arriving and spoke no Serbo-Croatian) learns about the place and the reasons behind the war (which weren't the simple "ethnic hate" explanations that people were being given), but the beginning is just too crass, he thinks his ignoramus kind of comments are funny and I hate the tone of it all.
There are dozens of books about the disintegration of Yugoslavia that I could be reading instead of wasting my time with this one.
- the author comparing himself to someone who has just discovered they have "the AIDS virus" (sic) when finding himself in front of a Serbian warlord who could kill him. I know that this was published in 1996, but come on.
- Talking about the pilot of the plane that's taking him to Sarajevo, the author says that "pilots of transport planes wanted to be ace fighters but didn't make the cut at flight school", so they like flying at a high altitude and do a steep descent into the airport at the last minute for "cheap thrills" (although Maass himself said just a sentence before that this was done to avoid Serbian artillery for as long as possible). Really, landing into a besieged city is "cheap thrills"?
- While on the same plane, a Belgian crew member observes that the war in Bosnia means that the dream of a united Europe is falling apart, and that "this is like Africa", so the author explains that Belgium is a "simple version of Yugoslavia" and that Flemings and Walloons "are not birds" but different peoples within Belgium (you don't say).
Then the plane starts back to leave Sarajevo, and he comments that he's being "left behind in Africa".
Just like another reviewer, I'm asking myself where the hell was the editor on this book.
And while I understand that it's meant as a journey through which Maass (who didn't know anything about the country/ies before arriving and spoke no Serbo-Croatian) learns about the place and the reasons behind the war (which weren't the simple "ethnic hate" explanations that people were being given), but the beginning is just too crass, he thinks his ignoramus kind of comments are funny and I hate the tone of it all.
There are dozens of books about the disintegration of Yugoslavia that I could be reading instead of wasting my time with this one.
September 1, 2025
As much experience as I have gathered on a certain subject (inter-ethnic/inter-religious conflict and -more specifically- 90s war in former Yugoslavia) some things still manage to leave me so deeply moved that I become speechless.
This book was one of them.
The best, most raw, most sincere and vulnerable journalistic account on anything that I have ever read. This book should be a compulsory read on high schools all over the world.
This book was one of them.
The best, most raw, most sincere and vulnerable journalistic account on anything that I have ever read. This book should be a compulsory read on high schools all over the world.
March 22, 2023
Easily the best book on Bosnia I've read so far. This is the best kind of combination: phenomenal writing, an intimate understanding of the subject and the nuances that makes context easy to follow and that is slipped seamlessly into the rest of the work, and a lot of personal insight and experience. It's one of those books that makes you forget that you're reading, and despite its dark subject matter it was highly enjoyable.
Like most books on this subject, I found it impossible to avoid growing frustrated and angry at the circumstances. What happened in Bosnia is still a very dark spot on the world's conscience, and deservedly so. This book breaks down the excuses and the lies and the assumptions; it highlights, again and again, over and over, how and when and why the world let Bosnia down. It is brutally frustrating and completely devastating. Maass's insight as somebody from a Jewish background adds a different dimension to the analysis, but it is not what you would expect. His conclusions will remain in my mind. We live in a precarious world.
I really have no complaints about this book. It's going to be a definite re-read at some point.
Like most books on this subject, I found it impossible to avoid growing frustrated and angry at the circumstances. What happened in Bosnia is still a very dark spot on the world's conscience, and deservedly so. This book breaks down the excuses and the lies and the assumptions; it highlights, again and again, over and over, how and when and why the world let Bosnia down. It is brutally frustrating and completely devastating. Maass's insight as somebody from a Jewish background adds a different dimension to the analysis, but it is not what you would expect. His conclusions will remain in my mind. We live in a precarious world.
I really have no complaints about this book. It's going to be a definite re-read at some point.
September 10, 2012
Very interesting read about the war in the Balkans and the propensity of humans to fight and survive wars in general. Devastatingly difficult in many parts, glimmers of hope in others. Ultimately I feel the author's recommendations are too emotive and just as under-considered in terms of their practical consequence as those he criticises throughout the book, but that shouldn't take away from what an excellent book this is.
May 25, 2017
If you want to get to the core of everything that happened in the Bosnia and Herzegovina and ex-Yugoslavia from 1992-1995, then this is must to read book. Recommending to anyone who lived, seen and felt those dark 90-s and war that torn apart one or even more generations.
May 1, 2008
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 so many emotions reading this its just unexplainable. It flowed and I couldn't get enough. I tried to read objectively and to grasp and understand both sides. But, involuntarily I found myself (as usual) feeling for the underdog. And if you do not know who that is in the Bosnian-Serbian issue, then read this book. At the end of the day, the title says it all and fits exactly. I can tell what the author is trying to convey, just from the title.
We can eventually see who the "real" cowards are, when, after ordering war and mayhem, run into the hills and hide from justice and/or die mysteriously in a comfortable room, conveniently call a cell.
I went through so many emotions reading this its just unexplainable. It flowed and I couldn't get enough. I tried to read objectively and to grasp and understand both sides. But, involuntarily I found myself (as usual) feeling for the underdog. And if you do not know who that is in the Bosnian-Serbian issue, then read this book. At the end of the day, the title says it all and fits exactly. I can tell what the author is trying to convey, just from the title.
We can eventually see who the "real" cowards are, when, after ordering war and mayhem, run into the hills and hide from justice and/or die mysteriously in a comfortable room, conveniently call a cell.
September 11, 2018
Love Thy Neighbor: A Story of War expresses all of the rage of one who discovers that global politics, all politics, is the game of kings; and kings care not a whit for the lives of peasants. Author Peter Maass catalogs both the atrocities inflicted by the Serbs in Bosnia and the equal atrocity & hypocrisy of the western democracies in doing nothing to stop it. As Maass notes, “The men with pens were every bit as fascinating and repulsive as the men with guns.” (p. 249) LTN is a timeless account; and that is tragically unfortunate. While it chronicles the war in Bosnia, it would be a simple matter to change a few names & a few dates, and the same story applies to Rwanda, Syria, Yemen, the West Bank & Gaza, Myanmar, ad nauseum. Power corrupts not only individuals but states as well.
September 29, 2007
how we failed bosnia, just like we're failing darfur. by not acknowledging genocide.
January 12, 2018
Such a gruesome and compelling war biography.
April 20, 2021
I genuinely feel sorry for Peter for having to cover such an atrocious war, an abomination of civilization that serves as a reminder that we are not at all yet civilized, and after reading this book I feel dread for the amount of time and the amount of events such as this that need to happen for us to become civilized. Then again, maybe such a state will never be achieved simply because of the fact that manipulation is such a fundamental experience so easily bestowed upon human kind, even more so in the age of technological mindlessness. I also felt sorry for myself for 30 years for being a child of said war, for loosing a happy childhood, for living in a psychological and financially ruined society. Peter has masterfully captured the disbelief of the Yugoslav people with their own cruel destiny, people intertwined together with language, culture, marriage, family, history threads, that still feel that the war happened upon them, not with them. Peter is mesmerized, drawn into and consumed by this "evil" that lurks within us all at all times, and he abdicates his safety many times, even thought you can feel through the whole book that he is not aroused by the violence like some other reporters, that in many instances he would like to be somewhere else. The actual thing is not so metaphysical in it's core, it's simply an observation of how people can be tricked into doing the worst things given the right medium and circumstances. If people of the same color, same language, and the same history could slaughter each other, imagine what people of different color could do to each other, if somebody divides them too much, like it's currently happening in the world. It is always and exclusively done by people in power, and exclusively for their own interest. The best solution when this is happening would be to back off and try to get a clearer picture of who, and for what reasons, is dividing people.
I congratulate Peter like a dear friend for scorching his soul in Bosnia, and for fighting for the truth. It gives us people of Bosnia hope that we are not forgotten, and it gives us strength to not look away, to also fight for the truth. I only wish Peter would find the strength to publish another updated edition with a personal review of everything that has happened since 1996. I am sure he was devastated as I was to learn that the war surgeon that operated in Srebrenica on more than 1200 surgeries without any equipment or medicine, Dr. Nedret Mujkanovic, has committed suicide. Also this would be a great opportunity to add the ebook version to Kindle, since it is not yet published.
I congratulate Peter like a dear friend for scorching his soul in Bosnia, and for fighting for the truth. It gives us people of Bosnia hope that we are not forgotten, and it gives us strength to not look away, to also fight for the truth. I only wish Peter would find the strength to publish another updated edition with a personal review of everything that has happened since 1996. I am sure he was devastated as I was to learn that the war surgeon that operated in Srebrenica on more than 1200 surgeries without any equipment or medicine, Dr. Nedret Mujkanovic, has committed suicide. Also this would be a great opportunity to add the ebook version to Kindle, since it is not yet published.
April 21, 2021
This was quite an intense book which examined not just the war in Bosnia, but how humans are led to do horrible things to one another by circumstances and evil people. When I am reading I usually sit and read while I eat. This book could not be read while eating. As a Jewish person, the description of the genocide made me ill. Here are some particularly powerful quotes from the book:
"I never thought that one day I would talk to a skeleton. That's what I did at Trnopollje. I walked through the gates and couldn't quite believe what I saw. There, right in front of me, were men who looked like survivors of Auschwitz. I remember thinking that they walked surprisingly well for people without muscle or flesh. I was surprised at the mere fact that they could still talk. Imagine, talking skeletons! As I spoke to one of them, I looked at his arm and realized that I could grab hold of it and snap it into two pieces like a brittle twig. I could do the same with his legs. I saw dozens of other walking skeletons of that sort. I could break all of their arms, all of their legs. Snap. Snap. Snap."
"As evil as this place was, it had an endearing slapstick side to it. At times, the Serbs seemed to be the gang that couldn't shoot straight; a colleague who wrote a book about Bosnia called them the 'Keystone Gestapo.'"
"It was too much. Old people are the saddest ones of all because they re helpless and without hope. It is worse to talk with them than to look at a corpse. Dead bodies don't talk, they can't tell you of their woes, of their losses and the terror they have faced, and still face. But old people can talk. They can break into sobs as you ask them about the purse hanging from their neck. They can look at the corpses at the side of the road and whimper, 'Oh, God, I wish I were dead. I wish I were dead.' It's true, they envy the corpses. Their past has been obliterated, their future consists of a grim spell in a refugee camp, where they will die in poverty, among strangers, in a strange land. They know it. The misery has ended for the corpses. It goes on for the living."
"The difference between dreams and nightmares is the difference between night and day. The dreams come at night, when eyes are closed. The nightmares come during the day, when eyes are open, and what they see are the hollow faces of refugees, or the different shades of blood on display in Bosnia (the three main categories are fresh, dried, and frozen). When you start working in a war zone, you might look forward to the dreams. They are an escape, an entertainment."
"Tragedy and absurdity were moons circling the Bosnian war."
"...an unusual death notice appeared in the New York Times...
IN MEMORIAM
OUR COMMITMENTS,
PRINCIPLES, AND MORAL VALUES
DIED: BOSNIA, 1994
ON THE OCCASION OF THE 1,000TH DAY
OF THE SIEGE OF SARAJEVO"
"Bosnia can teach us about the wild, beast, and there about ourselves, and our destinies. What happened in Bosnia was not a Balkan freak show but a violent process of national breakdown at the hands of political manipulators.
"I never thought that one day I would talk to a skeleton. That's what I did at Trnopollje. I walked through the gates and couldn't quite believe what I saw. There, right in front of me, were men who looked like survivors of Auschwitz. I remember thinking that they walked surprisingly well for people without muscle or flesh. I was surprised at the mere fact that they could still talk. Imagine, talking skeletons! As I spoke to one of them, I looked at his arm and realized that I could grab hold of it and snap it into two pieces like a brittle twig. I could do the same with his legs. I saw dozens of other walking skeletons of that sort. I could break all of their arms, all of their legs. Snap. Snap. Snap."
"As evil as this place was, it had an endearing slapstick side to it. At times, the Serbs seemed to be the gang that couldn't shoot straight; a colleague who wrote a book about Bosnia called them the 'Keystone Gestapo.'"
"It was too much. Old people are the saddest ones of all because they re helpless and without hope. It is worse to talk with them than to look at a corpse. Dead bodies don't talk, they can't tell you of their woes, of their losses and the terror they have faced, and still face. But old people can talk. They can break into sobs as you ask them about the purse hanging from their neck. They can look at the corpses at the side of the road and whimper, 'Oh, God, I wish I were dead. I wish I were dead.' It's true, they envy the corpses. Their past has been obliterated, their future consists of a grim spell in a refugee camp, where they will die in poverty, among strangers, in a strange land. They know it. The misery has ended for the corpses. It goes on for the living."
"The difference between dreams and nightmares is the difference between night and day. The dreams come at night, when eyes are closed. The nightmares come during the day, when eyes are open, and what they see are the hollow faces of refugees, or the different shades of blood on display in Bosnia (the three main categories are fresh, dried, and frozen). When you start working in a war zone, you might look forward to the dreams. They are an escape, an entertainment."
"Tragedy and absurdity were moons circling the Bosnian war."
"...an unusual death notice appeared in the New York Times...
IN MEMORIAM
OUR COMMITMENTS,
PRINCIPLES, AND MORAL VALUES
DIED: BOSNIA, 1994
ON THE OCCASION OF THE 1,000TH DAY
OF THE SIEGE OF SARAJEVO"
"Bosnia can teach us about the wild, beast, and there about ourselves, and our destinies. What happened in Bosnia was not a Balkan freak show but a violent process of national breakdown at the hands of political manipulators.
September 1, 2023
Balkan Mind Fuck
Haunting account of the WaPo reporter assigned to the Yugo civil war beat. Clear-eyed and pulls no punches and does not make false equivalences between the victims and the aggressor. The Serbs committed the overwhelming number of atrocities and the UN (along with Europe) helped them do it.
Haunting account of the WaPo reporter assigned to the Yugo civil war beat. Clear-eyed and pulls no punches and does not make false equivalences between the victims and the aggressor. The Serbs committed the overwhelming number of atrocities and the UN (along with Europe) helped them do it.
February 9, 2017
I am glad I read this book, but I can't say I liked it. I don't think one can really like a book detailing the comprehensive genocide of a people. Maass' descriptions are graphic, but they need to be in order to convey the absolute horror that ransacked Bosnia during the early 90s. He is unapologetic in his condemnation of Serb leadership, Croat leadership and especially the international community that allowed Serbs to run rampant all over the Balkans without so much as a slap on the wrist. I started reading this right before going to bed and wound up staying up until 2 am to finish it because, like a rubbernecker on the highway Maass used as an example in one of his tangents, I couldn't look away. Coming from the Balkans, this struck especially close to home and I cried a few times (I would have to be hard-hearted not to). Surprisingly, I also laughed as Maass retold the jokes the people used to say about each other. If there's one thing I love about the Balkans, it's that unique sense of humor that allows us to poke fun at ourselves and our neighbors even in the direst of straits.
This is not an enjoyable book to read. I cannot with good conscience recommend it to someone without warning them that it can destroy their spirits for a while, but I also think it should be required reading for anyone who wants to visit the Balkans, talk about the Balkans, praise the UN for its role in keeping the world at peace (ha!) or advocate a return to American greatness - a greatness when we refused to recognize a genocide, when we deliberately ignored the murder and rape of innocent civilians, because it was inconvenient for us.
This is not an enjoyable book to read. I cannot with good conscience recommend it to someone without warning them that it can destroy their spirits for a while, but I also think it should be required reading for anyone who wants to visit the Balkans, talk about the Balkans, praise the UN for its role in keeping the world at peace (ha!) or advocate a return to American greatness - a greatness when we refused to recognize a genocide, when we deliberately ignored the murder and rape of innocent civilians, because it was inconvenient for us.
December 20, 2020
This is a book that has stuck with me for decades, and which I really want to reread. Terrifying, disgusting, completely depressing and at times darkly funny.
Or I have completely misremembered it. Or I am a monster, and was laughing at things that no normal person would laugh at. Who can tell?
Not the happiest book I have read, however.
——
Recently listened to the audiobook (why isn’t this available on Kindle? I’m old, and need to adjust fonts...) and it was not quite as well written or as funny as I remembered (the person reading it just didn’t hit the funny bits the right way, presumably not wanting to be thought of as a monster).
The section at the end, about Bill Clinton, reminded me of how ineffective and useless the man was, to do nothing about genocide in Europe, and how much we need a strong President with a global outlook, who is worried about more than short term political interests. Someone who can recognize that where we can act to stop genocide, we should. Not that the Republicans were any better.
A few months before the fighting started in Bosnia, it was unthinkable as anything other than a dark joke — the nationalists were just buffoons and country bumpkins. There was a skit on Bosnian television about a mixed ethnicity family fiercely fighting over their shared apartment with the bathroom being the most prized territory of all. And then, a few months later, there was war, and war crimes, and genocide.
Meanwhile, in the present day, well, I’m sure any parallels with out country bumpkins are likely strained at best. Hardly any of them show up armed at protests to contest the results of elections that they lost...
Or I have completely misremembered it. Or I am a monster, and was laughing at things that no normal person would laugh at. Who can tell?
Not the happiest book I have read, however.
——
Recently listened to the audiobook (why isn’t this available on Kindle? I’m old, and need to adjust fonts...) and it was not quite as well written or as funny as I remembered (the person reading it just didn’t hit the funny bits the right way, presumably not wanting to be thought of as a monster).
The section at the end, about Bill Clinton, reminded me of how ineffective and useless the man was, to do nothing about genocide in Europe, and how much we need a strong President with a global outlook, who is worried about more than short term political interests. Someone who can recognize that where we can act to stop genocide, we should. Not that the Republicans were any better.
A few months before the fighting started in Bosnia, it was unthinkable as anything other than a dark joke — the nationalists were just buffoons and country bumpkins. There was a skit on Bosnian television about a mixed ethnicity family fiercely fighting over their shared apartment with the bathroom being the most prized territory of all. And then, a few months later, there was war, and war crimes, and genocide.
Meanwhile, in the present day, well, I’m sure any parallels with out country bumpkins are likely strained at best. Hardly any of them show up armed at protests to contest the results of elections that they lost...
August 27, 2018
The world order committed a sin when it turned its back on the Bosnian War. We closed our eyes as the Serbs unleashed chaos; raping, pillaging, and burning their way through the neighborhoods and villages of Muslims and Croats that for centuries had been their compatriots and friends. We denied military aid to these people, handicapping their defenses as we pleaded for "peace" and "diplomacy", while the newsreels made it apparent that the only solution that would satisfy their aggressors was a genocidal one.
The heartbreak behind the Bosnian tragedy is that all it took were 3,500 air sorties-actions that cost NATO nearly nothing in blood, money, or equipment-to give Bosnia time to recover enough territory to negotiate a sustainable ceasefire that prevented the absolute annihilation of its ancient community.
It's not a stretching the example to place the Syrian War, and now the Yemeni one, in the same archetype. When we acquiesce our duty to prevent senseless slaughter from one decade to the next, we permit the darkest aspects of our humanity to fester, and perhaps to one day manifest themselves on our shores.
The heartbreak behind the Bosnian tragedy is that all it took were 3,500 air sorties-actions that cost NATO nearly nothing in blood, money, or equipment-to give Bosnia time to recover enough territory to negotiate a sustainable ceasefire that prevented the absolute annihilation of its ancient community.
It's not a stretching the example to place the Syrian War, and now the Yemeni one, in the same archetype. When we acquiesce our duty to prevent senseless slaughter from one decade to the next, we permit the darkest aspects of our humanity to fester, and perhaps to one day manifest themselves on our shores.
December 24, 2016
A campaign of ethnic cleansing against Bosnian Muslims took place in Europe less than 25 years ago. It was a gruesome and bloody genocide where many innocent people were tortured and sent to concentration camps, a terrible reprise of one of the darkest chapters in human history. More than any of the moral platitudes that I could recite, the campaign's victims deserve empathy and justice.
Peter Maas's account of the Bosnian War does a fine job in making sure that this tragedy is understood. He uses an engaging voice to retell a story of age-old ethnic feuds, facile justifications and the fumbling hypocrisy of bureaucrats. He does justice to an important part of European History and that alone is worthy of praise.
Peter Maas's account of the Bosnian War does a fine job in making sure that this tragedy is understood. He uses an engaging voice to retell a story of age-old ethnic feuds, facile justifications and the fumbling hypocrisy of bureaucrats. He does justice to an important part of European History and that alone is worthy of praise.
February 19, 2012
"Never forget" was the watchword after Hitler. Yet the world mostly ignored the atrocities of the Bosnian war -- and then mostly forgot about it afterward. Peter Maass displays a Hemingwayesque style as he uses his sharp reporter's eye to depict one of humanity's lowest moments, depicting Sarajevo, a city that once hosted the Olympics Winter Games, as a surreal deathtrap. But he abandons his journalistic objectivity to expresses his bewilderment at the world's response. He uses humor to leaven the implicit indictment, yet the book remains a searing cry from the heart. It should be required reading for anyone who cares about history or the future of civilization.
September 18, 2007
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 with moral complexity.
July 14, 2008
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 in that conflict which is still largely overlooked and neglected today.
March 29, 2013
Amazing book which does not overdose on the gory but gives a sense of what it might be like to live day after day for two or three years in a horrific war. His description of life in Banja Luka for Muslims is harrowing, his visits to the cleaned up concentration camps, and his description of the young man shot on Sniper Alley in Sarajevo. Unforgettable. He even met Milosevic one on one. He does not dismiss the Serbs as primitives, or single out Rwandans, or isolate anybody, rather, the capacity to evil is in all of us. God help us! Many fun/ironic/sardonic observations.
July 9, 2014
Having recently traveled in Eastern Europe, I have become increasingly interested in the recent (last 20-60 years) history of this region. This book was an eye opener for one who, living in the U.S., received conflicting information from our government concerning the Bosnian War. I almost couldn't put this down and so appreciate how Mr. Maass remains fair and objective until the near end of his time as a reporter there, when the brutality of the Serbs and his frustration with the West's refusal to help nearly broke his spirit. Highly recommended for anyone with even the slightest interest.
October 23, 2007
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.
March 21, 2015
A tremendously depressing and troubling book, I nonetheless think that everyone should read it. Maas does an excellent job of communicating the tragedy of the genocide in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Unless you are a sociopath, you will be moved, saddened and disgusted by the horrors perpetrated by the combatants and the so-called civilized world. Finally, his epilogue is relevant to us today and is needed food for thought.
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