Blood and Vengeance: One Family's Story of the War in Bosnia

by Chuck Sudetic

The events surrounding the genocide of seven thousand Bosnian Muslims in 1995 by Bosnian Serbs is told through the odyssey of one Muslim family, recounting the long and brutal history of the rival factions that claim the region. Reprint.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, War, Memoir, Biography, Politics, Anthropology

448 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1998

Reviews

[Jeff Kelleher · Rating 5 out of 5]

The masterpiece of the Bosnian war.

The village of Kupusovici high in the mountains above the Drina River Valley in Eastern Bosnia today is a ruin. Two dozen bombed-out stone habitations are scattered around a tumble-down weed-filled mosque. A sturdy car can reach the place, but the dirt road is so eroded and rocky that it's best to hike in. Ancient paths, tilting headstones, and a still-functioning spring-fed washbasin are evidence that there once was a bustling little civilization here. Now, the only movement is the wind against the sheer stone face of the mountain behind.

When the Serb army poured South up the Drina Valley in the early weeks of the war in 1992, they quickly took Visegrad, the nearest city to Kupusovici, drove out 10,000 Muslims, and slaughtered another 2000, many of them by shooting or throat-slitting on Ivo Andric's famous bridge. So many bodies were dumped into the Drina that it was said no one would fish in it for three years. In their ethnic-cleansing ardor, the Serb forces took the trouble to find their way to even the remotest villages in the mountains. Kupusovici was one of those.

Kupusovici is also the jumping-off place for Chuck Sudetic's brilliant, tragic tale. He was related by marriage to a Muslim family that had long lived there, Huso and Hiba Celik and their four children. During the Serbs'1992 sweep, the Celiks were fortunate to escape over the mountains to the North, and to find a habitable abandoned house in the "safe" town of Srebrenica. This book is the story of their ordeal.

Sudetic also fills in the background history of the region, the country, and the war. There are other books more comprehensive and more scholarly, but none more illuminating about what this war was, and meant. It is one of the most vivid books ever written about any war, and hands down the best about this particular one. (Believe me. I've read just about all of them.)

As one example of Sudetic's inspired style, he recounts Bosnian Serb General Mladic's final assault on Srebrenica in July 1995 by cutting back and forth between the movements of the Serb force as it closes in during the night and the anxious talk and movements of the Celik family, huddled in the dark in their house in the middle of the town. Gripping, chilling, cinematic.

Anyone who has found this review was probably led here by an interest in the Bosnian war. I hope others with a wider interest in war and in modern European history will also find it, and read and be enlightened by this classic.

[Amra Pajalic · Rating 5 out of 5]

By telling the story about a family from the 19th century through to the Balkan War, Sudetic is able to tell the story of Bosnia. The Celik family come from the mountains and through their family history we learn about Bosnia's history from feudalism, to the Ottoman Empire, and how these sewed the seeds of WWII, and then the Balkan War. The Celiks become refugees and end up in Srebrenica where half the family is decimated by the massacre in which 8,000 men were killed. This is a book where the tragedy of a massacre is told up close through the suffering and loss that one family experiences. A heartbreaking and important read.

[Tomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is so much evil in the world. Sudetic's wife's family was one of those affected by the Bosnian War. This book tells their story and makes it very clear that evil is alive and well - and that those who allow the evil to continue are equally guilty. I will be haunted by this story for a long time.

[Constance · Rating 4 out of 5]

i read this book for a book review i have to send in soon for my comparative civil wars class. it was so interesting to get « introduced » to a conflict through the lens of a family which, though generations of simply being Bosnian Muslims, have gone through so much violence and hatred since the first world war. the only reason it doesn’t get a 5 is because of the academic detailed sections on the war which didn’t sync well with the family testimonies, but i insist by saying that this book should be read more in order to focus on the importance of testimonies in understanding conflict better in theory and practice

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

No words... Made me cry and think a lot about how evil the human being can be. We take so much for granted when we should be grateful for how lucky we are if ours lives have never been touched by the darkness of war

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems strange to give the rating "really liked it", as there is little to like about the suffering, injustice, and brutality described in "Blood and Vengeance." The author, however, is a talented and descriptive writer who does a good job of explaining the facts and circumstances of one family's experience in the Bosnian War, while weaving throughout the themes of hope, endurance, and the power of family bonds. The result is a moving and informative work that helps shed some light on a complex set of events.

[Boris Cesnik · Rating 4 out of 5]

It should not be the beginning nor the end of your exploration into the meanderings of the war. It's a a tiny episode of universal reach, a story within history, a dry and punchy report rightfully or wrongly told in simple words and basic narrative.

It was hard to read but not for the subject this time. The journalistic writing right down to the morrow carried the audacity to tell the truth just as it happened but at the same time it leaves the reader with too much to take on completely bare-naked and too little time and space to feel any emotion.

The author's journalistic skill is in full force in the last few chapters where the macro and micro episodes of the war, the international, local and abstract protagonists all intermingled in a tight and fast account of each day passing by.

Chuck might have had a brilliant idea and unique starting point behind this book but the execution craved for a different kind of narrative. Any feeling is better than none.

[Jay M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oof. Blood and Vengeance is a tough read. Authors quite often try to soften the graphic descriptions of what humans do to one another, but Sudetic writes like a war reporter without an editor and with a stake in the game - which he does. He's family to some victims, and relied extensively on them for his reporting. Traditional thought might be that we should take his words with a grain of salt, but I think that's nonsense. It's well-researched, supported by facts both contemporaneous as well as later discovered, and his qualifier is right there on the cover: "One family's story of the war in Bosnia."

I wouldn't dare to venture commentary of the war itself, other than remembering, at the time, the US reluctance to publicly use the word "genocide." Had we only...

Regardless, Sudetic's book is great war reporting, sensitive writing, and investigative. It's also yet another sad commentary on the shitty things we do to one another.

[Unclerooibos · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book on the war in Bosnia I've read.

[nour]

(read for class)

[Al · Rating 2 out of 5]

Crying out for a decent editing. Very much one family's version of events and one senses there is much that is not stated and much unexplained. Consequently, I've abandoned ship 2/3rds of the way through and have bought a regular history of the conflict in the hope of greater enlightenment. It was having read Edna O'Brien's Red Chairs that set me off on this track.

[Frank Kool · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Blood and Vengeance' is not a book you're likely to forget.

To start with a point of criticism: it is somewhat difficult to get into. The first chapters give a detailed description of no less than six generations of the Celik family. I hope you're already familiar with the history of Central Europe, because you'll spend plenty of time flipping back and forth between the text and the family tree provided at the beginning to make sense of the genealogy.
One last gripe: there were quite some spelling/punctuation errors in my edition. One in particular was bothersome: the earlier mentioned family erroneously puts the birth date of a Celik patriarch in 1909, which caused confusion when halfway into the book I read that he was killed in 1914.

However, those who feel lulled into comfort with the many personal anecdotes and descriptions of the Balkan countryside may be in for a shock. As the book progresses into nineties, we zoom in what is now considered the greatest crime against humanity in late 20th century Europe. The detailed, first-hand testimonies of the slaughter of thousands of Bosniaks in the town of Srebrenica are difficult to stomach. There are no silver linings or redemption stories; the book is brutal in its delivery and depressing in its conclusion.

Throughout all this, BaV is a rather apolitical book, with its focus on giving a personal account of the genocide. The historical account will leave a predisposed reader with ample evidence to blame the reoccurring violence in Yugoslavia on either the Ottomans, the Austrians, the communists, the Nazis, the Bosniaks/Croats/Serbs, or the international community. But this moralization seems unimportant to the author. It is ultimately a book that is concerned with the individual experience, or to turn a famous quote (falsely attributed to Stalin) on its head: to turn a statistic into a tragedy.

[Binston Birchill · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first hundred or so pages set up the backstory of both Bosnia and the civilian family at the center of this story, the Celiks. The rest is an account of the war in Bosnia from the military point of view (mainly centered around Mladic) the political point of view (lots of failure there, until the end) and from the civilian POV centered primarily around the Celiks. The cast of characters is huge and sometimes it's difficult to remember who is who but the actual events themselves are fairly easy to understand. The book focuses on the conflict in Srebrenica and around the Drina.

I found the analysis of events and such to be much the same as other Yugoslavia literature but what set this book apart was the personal stories which were brilliantly presented. This book is probably my favorite book on war as far as the style goes. It's easy to find pure military book or books focusing on civilians, but finding on that does both so well is quite rare in my experience, well done Chuck Sudetic.

[Kimmy · Rating 2 out of 5]

As interested I am in Balkan history and as much as I love a dramatic and emotional non-fiction read, this book just did not do it for me. You would think that a book about a family's experience in the Bosnian war would check those boxes but this book read more like a dry history book than a human story. It was not the subject or characters that failed to capture my imagination, but the authors style that seemed more about spewing facts than anything else. Its taken me about 6 months to get through the dry thick history lessons that this book seems to be about. So If your looking to learn the chronology of historical events leading up to the bosnian war, this book is for you. If your looking to be swept away by the emotions and personal stories of real people, try another book.

[Quotejakeunquote · Rating 5 out of 5]

I straight up couldn't leave this book alone for ten minutes. An engaging, shocking, and ultimately humanizing look at the events in Bosnia through the eyes of one family, from a first time reporter without a journalism degree. It was a nice contrast to The Fall of Yugoslavia's exhaustively thorough, but often fairly standard reportage.

[Noelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A journalist traces his family's history through the ages and examines the actual events in the early 90s, providing context to the Bosnian genocide. This book is particularly helpful to those who know nothing (as I did) about it.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unlike other accounts of the Bosnian conflict, this book takes a look from the situation on the ground from a generational perspective. The horror, violence, confusion, and overarching sense of betrayal hits close to home as one family struggles to survive and stay together.

[Elissar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Words can never level up to describing this book. It's beautiful.

[Maddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story that illustrates both the political and personal sides to the war. A bit choppy at times, but all and all very moving and informative.

[Colette Connors · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written in part in the Westmount Library .