Barbara L. reviewed on 5/12/2009 + 988 more book reviews

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. Most war reportage cannot explain how an ordinary Serb could wake up one morning and shoot his neighbor, once a friend - then rape his neighbor's wife. It cannot convey the desperation that would make a Muslim beg the United States to bomb his own city in order to end his own misery. And most reporters would falter at the spectacle of U.N. soldiers shining searchlights on fleeing refugees - who are promptly gunned down by snipers waiting in the darkness. Maass gives us an unflinching vision of a late 20th century hell that is also a scathing inquiry into the worst extremes of human nature. This is an utterly gripping book that will continue to move and instruct readers for years.

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