What do you think?
Rate this book
Madness Visible: A Memoir of War
As a senior foreign correspondent for The Times of London, Janine di Giovanni was a firsthand witness to the brutal and protracted break-up of Yugoslavia. With unflinching sensitivity, Madness Visible follows the arc of the wars in the Balkans through the experience of those caught up in soldiers numbed by the atrocities they commit, women driven to despair by their life in paramilitary rape camps, civilians (di Giovanni among them) caught in bombing raids of uncertain origin, babies murdered in hate-induced rage.
Di Giovanni’s searing memoir examines the turmoil of the Balkans in acute detail, and uncovers the motives of the leaders who created hell on earth; it raises challenging questions about ethnic conflict and the responsibilities of foreign governments in times of mass murder. Perceptive and compelling, this unique work of reportage from the physical and psychological front lines makes the madness of war wholly visible.
Di Giovanni’s searing memoir examines the turmoil of the Balkans in acute detail, and uncovers the motives of the leaders who created hell on earth; it raises challenging questions about ethnic conflict and the responsibilities of foreign governments in times of mass murder. Perceptive and compelling, this unique work of reportage from the physical and psychological front lines makes the madness of war wholly visible.
304 pages, Paperback
First published November 11, 2003
27 people are currently reading
572 people want to read
About the author
Janine Di Giovanni
24 books147 followersJanine di Giovanni is one of Europe's most respected and experienced reporters, with vast experience covering war and conflict. Her reporting has been called "established, accomplished brilliance" and she has been cited as "the finest foreign correspondent of our generation".
Born in the US, she began reporting by covering the first Palestinian intifada in the late 1980s and went on to report nearly every violent conflict since then. Her trademark has always been to write about the human cost of war, to attempt to give war a human face, and to work in conflict zones that the world's press has forgotten.
She continued writing about Bosnia long after most people forgot it. In 2000, she was one of the few foreign reporters to witness the fall of Grozny, Chechnya, and her depictions of the terror after the fall of city won her several major awards. She has campaigned for stories from Africa to be given better coverage, and she has worked in Somalia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Benin, Burkino Faso, Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe, Liberia, as well as Israel, Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans, East Timor and Chechnya.
During the war in Kosovo, di Giovanni travelled with the Kosovo Liberation Army into occupied Kosovo and sustained a bombing raid on her unit which left many soldiers dead. Her article on that incident, and many of her other experiences during the Balkan Wars, "Madness Visible" for Vanity Fair (June 1999), won the National Magazine Award. It was later expanded into a book for Knopf/Bloomsbury, and has been called one of the best books ever written about war. Madness Visible has been optioned as a feature film by actress Julia Roberts production company, Revolution Films.
Di Giovanni has written several books: Ghosts by Daylight: A Memoir of War and Love (Bloomsbury/Knopf 2011); The Place at the End of the World: Essays from the Edge (Bloomsbury 2006); Against the Stranger (Viking/Penguin 1993) about the effect of occupations during the first intifada on both Palestinians and Israelis; The Quick and The Dead about the siege of Sarajevo, and the introduction to the best-selling Zlata's Diary about a child growing up in Sarajevo. Her work have been anthologized widely, including in The Best American Magazine Writing, 2000.
She has won four major awards, including the National Magazine Award, one of America's most prestigious prizes in journalism. She has won two Amnesty International Awards for Sierra Leone and Bosnia. And she has won Britain's Grenada Television's Foreign Correspondent of the Year for Chechnya.
She is one of the journalists featured in a documentary about women war reporters, Bearing Witness, a film by three-time Academy Award winning director Barbara Kopple, which was shown at the Tribeca film festival and on the A&E network in May, 2005.
In 1993, she was the subject of another documentary about women war reporters, "No Man's Land" which followed her working in Sarajevo. She has also made two long format documentaries for the BBC. In 2000, she returned to Bosnia to make "Lessons from History," a report on five years of peace after the Dayton Accords. The following year she went to Jamaica to report on a little-known but tragic story of police assassinations of civilians, "Dead Men Tell No Tales." Both films were critically acclaimed.
With Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega, Managua, Nicaragua, January, 1990. Photo by Marc Schlossman
Di Giovanni's book, The Place at the End of the World, a collection of her essays, was published by Bloomsbury in January, 2006. 2006 has also brought projects on Muslims in Europe, the French riots, AIDS in South Africa, September 11 anniversary features, and the current political situation in Israel among others. She is at work on another book for Knopf/Bloomsbury, Up at Tito's Villa, set in Montenegro.
Janine di Giovanni is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, a contributing writer to the New York Times, Granta, Newsweek and many
Born in the US, she began reporting by covering the first Palestinian intifada in the late 1980s and went on to report nearly every violent conflict since then. Her trademark has always been to write about the human cost of war, to attempt to give war a human face, and to work in conflict zones that the world's press has forgotten.
She continued writing about Bosnia long after most people forgot it. In 2000, she was one of the few foreign reporters to witness the fall of Grozny, Chechnya, and her depictions of the terror after the fall of city won her several major awards. She has campaigned for stories from Africa to be given better coverage, and she has worked in Somalia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Benin, Burkino Faso, Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe, Liberia, as well as Israel, Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans, East Timor and Chechnya.
During the war in Kosovo, di Giovanni travelled with the Kosovo Liberation Army into occupied Kosovo and sustained a bombing raid on her unit which left many soldiers dead. Her article on that incident, and many of her other experiences during the Balkan Wars, "Madness Visible" for Vanity Fair (June 1999), won the National Magazine Award. It was later expanded into a book for Knopf/Bloomsbury, and has been called one of the best books ever written about war. Madness Visible has been optioned as a feature film by actress Julia Roberts production company, Revolution Films.
Di Giovanni has written several books: Ghosts by Daylight: A Memoir of War and Love (Bloomsbury/Knopf 2011); The Place at the End of the World: Essays from the Edge (Bloomsbury 2006); Against the Stranger (Viking/Penguin 1993) about the effect of occupations during the first intifada on both Palestinians and Israelis; The Quick and The Dead about the siege of Sarajevo, and the introduction to the best-selling Zlata's Diary about a child growing up in Sarajevo. Her work have been anthologized widely, including in The Best American Magazine Writing, 2000.
She has won four major awards, including the National Magazine Award, one of America's most prestigious prizes in journalism. She has won two Amnesty International Awards for Sierra Leone and Bosnia. And she has won Britain's Grenada Television's Foreign Correspondent of the Year for Chechnya.
She is one of the journalists featured in a documentary about women war reporters, Bearing Witness, a film by three-time Academy Award winning director Barbara Kopple, which was shown at the Tribeca film festival and on the A&E network in May, 2005.
In 1993, she was the subject of another documentary about women war reporters, "No Man's Land" which followed her working in Sarajevo. She has also made two long format documentaries for the BBC. In 2000, she returned to Bosnia to make "Lessons from History," a report on five years of peace after the Dayton Accords. The following year she went to Jamaica to report on a little-known but tragic story of police assassinations of civilians, "Dead Men Tell No Tales." Both films were critically acclaimed.
With Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega, Managua, Nicaragua, January, 1990. Photo by Marc Schlossman
Di Giovanni's book, The Place at the End of the World, a collection of her essays, was published by Bloomsbury in January, 2006. 2006 has also brought projects on Muslims in Europe, the French riots, AIDS in South Africa, September 11 anniversary features, and the current political situation in Israel among others. She is at work on another book for Knopf/Bloomsbury, Up at Tito's Villa, set in Montenegro.
Janine di Giovanni is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, a contributing writer to the New York Times, Granta, Newsweek and many
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
November 29, 2020
It’s not lost on me that I’m writing this review on July 11, 2020, the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre. I have always been fascinated by the Balkans and enjoy reading about the region’s history, some of which shaped the geopolitics of our current world. Of course, when you learn about this region, you can’t avoid the tragic wars of the 1990s, something I remember watching on the news.
Janinie Di Giovanni writes a remarkable book that approaches the conflicts from various angles and tries to balance all viewpoints by discussing Serb, Croat, Albanian, and Bosnian issues. She frames the breakup of Yugoslavia and subsequent wars in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kosovo through its past. The reader learns the seeds of the region’s conflicts are rooted in its medieval and more recent history dating back to World War II when various groups who fought each other in the 90s aligned themselves with the Axis powers or Tito’s communist partisans.
She covers the conflicts from both a 35,000 feet view discussing the history, politics and nationalism that ignited the wars and killing but the book’s primary focus centers on the wars' effect on the individual, many of whom just wanted to live their lives without regard for politics.
You’ll meet the people who had to flee their homes when their neighbor’s and former friends turned on them, often at a moment’s notice. She introduces you to people that lost loved ones in the Srebrenica massacre. She provides insight to the personalities who ordered the shelling of Sarajevo and gave the orders resulting in death of many innocent victims.
Inevitably, when I read a book or watch a documentary about the breakup of Yugoslavia, reviewers criticize the content for focusing on one side while making the others appear to be the perpetrators. For the most part, I believe Ms. Di Giovanni does a fair job balancing the various viewpoints. While a great deal of the book focuses on the war’s impact on Kosovar Albanians, Bonsian Muslims, and Croatians, she attempts to provide Serb viewpoints as well. For example, she writes about the Kosovo region’s sanctity to the Serbian Orthodox Christian faith, helping the reader understand why Serbia doesn’t want to lose this area.She interviews Serbs angry about the NATO bombing of their country during the Kosovo War. She notes Serbs were also the victim of ethnic cleansing as she discusses seeing shivering Serb refugees sitting outside Belgrade lacking services and wondering why no international media was present to cover their plight
However, she is not without her bias, which she admits. Her bias stems from meeting the snipers who brag about shooting innocents and seeing the men shelling Sarajevo indiscriminately. She also writes about a time she is in a post-war Bosnian town and enters a Serb cafe describing the patrons as looking like war criminals, without justifying her conclusions.
She also levels criticism at NATO many times concluding that the organization’s lack of action or leadership early in the conflict could have cost thousands of lives. In her opinion, the organization only acted in Kosovo to keep the war from escalating into a wider conflict potentially involving NATO allies Turkey and Greece on opposite sides.
The end of the book is most poignant as she visits post-war Bosnia and laments Sarajevo seems to have lost much of the spirit it possessed helping it survive one of the longest sieges in modern warfare. Instead, corruption, greed, and organized crime replaced its resilience and left many of the attitudes in place which could ignite the region once again.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the conflicts in the 1990s Balkans. It is a powerful look into how senseless conflict impacts the individual and how the desires of evil can hurt those most innocent.
Janinie Di Giovanni writes a remarkable book that approaches the conflicts from various angles and tries to balance all viewpoints by discussing Serb, Croat, Albanian, and Bosnian issues. She frames the breakup of Yugoslavia and subsequent wars in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kosovo through its past. The reader learns the seeds of the region’s conflicts are rooted in its medieval and more recent history dating back to World War II when various groups who fought each other in the 90s aligned themselves with the Axis powers or Tito’s communist partisans.
She covers the conflicts from both a 35,000 feet view discussing the history, politics and nationalism that ignited the wars and killing but the book’s primary focus centers on the wars' effect on the individual, many of whom just wanted to live their lives without regard for politics.
You’ll meet the people who had to flee their homes when their neighbor’s and former friends turned on them, often at a moment’s notice. She introduces you to people that lost loved ones in the Srebrenica massacre. She provides insight to the personalities who ordered the shelling of Sarajevo and gave the orders resulting in death of many innocent victims.
Inevitably, when I read a book or watch a documentary about the breakup of Yugoslavia, reviewers criticize the content for focusing on one side while making the others appear to be the perpetrators. For the most part, I believe Ms. Di Giovanni does a fair job balancing the various viewpoints. While a great deal of the book focuses on the war’s impact on Kosovar Albanians, Bonsian Muslims, and Croatians, she attempts to provide Serb viewpoints as well. For example, she writes about the Kosovo region’s sanctity to the Serbian Orthodox Christian faith, helping the reader understand why Serbia doesn’t want to lose this area.She interviews Serbs angry about the NATO bombing of their country during the Kosovo War. She notes Serbs were also the victim of ethnic cleansing as she discusses seeing shivering Serb refugees sitting outside Belgrade lacking services and wondering why no international media was present to cover their plight
However, she is not without her bias, which she admits. Her bias stems from meeting the snipers who brag about shooting innocents and seeing the men shelling Sarajevo indiscriminately. She also writes about a time she is in a post-war Bosnian town and enters a Serb cafe describing the patrons as looking like war criminals, without justifying her conclusions.
She also levels criticism at NATO many times concluding that the organization’s lack of action or leadership early in the conflict could have cost thousands of lives. In her opinion, the organization only acted in Kosovo to keep the war from escalating into a wider conflict potentially involving NATO allies Turkey and Greece on opposite sides.
The end of the book is most poignant as she visits post-war Bosnia and laments Sarajevo seems to have lost much of the spirit it possessed helping it survive one of the longest sieges in modern warfare. Instead, corruption, greed, and organized crime replaced its resilience and left many of the attitudes in place which could ignite the region once again.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the conflicts in the 1990s Balkans. It is a powerful look into how senseless conflict impacts the individual and how the desires of evil can hurt those most innocent.
May 25, 2018
This was an unforgettable book. Janine Di Giovanni wrote this book with passion about the stories she heard or witnessed or lived. The title of the book suits the book perfectly as madness was a state seen and witnessed during the Yugoslav war. Giovanni demands the reader to feel how it was in the Yugoslav war as a reporter, soldier, mother, victim, refugee and etc. The characters touch you so deeply. Giovanni succeeds in linking individuals suffering during wartime with facts, figures, and history and official statements.
I loved the start in which she took us to the KLA fighters scene with her description and language. There were images of victims that moved me and will never leave my mind of how horrible they were. It was shocking to know how the criminals of this war were unhuman and how pure hatred veiled their eyes. Some stories forced you into shedding tears or gasping from the suffering. In addition some stories might leave your face dull and out of color. I felt sad for those who had neighbors and friends that lived together in peace and brotherhood for years but at one night betrayed them just for ethnic divisions. I felt angry at the fact that some criminals were unpunished and left to live freely. You feel sad for every Albanian and Bosnian Muslim who had to go through this. At the end I felt like Janine I would always remember the scenes that she wrote and would always link them to Albania and Bosnia. I recommend this memoir to everyone who wants to know how wars can be tragic and how it takes time heal from war although pain will last an eternity.
I loved the start in which she took us to the KLA fighters scene with her description and language. There were images of victims that moved me and will never leave my mind of how horrible they were. It was shocking to know how the criminals of this war were unhuman and how pure hatred veiled their eyes. Some stories forced you into shedding tears or gasping from the suffering. In addition some stories might leave your face dull and out of color. I felt sad for those who had neighbors and friends that lived together in peace and brotherhood for years but at one night betrayed them just for ethnic divisions. I felt angry at the fact that some criminals were unpunished and left to live freely. You feel sad for every Albanian and Bosnian Muslim who had to go through this. At the end I felt like Janine I would always remember the scenes that she wrote and would always link them to Albania and Bosnia. I recommend this memoir to everyone who wants to know how wars can be tragic and how it takes time heal from war although pain will last an eternity.
May 26, 2023
Gorgeous writing, objective when possible, when not Janine explains why it’s not possible. As a reader I can feel that I can trust her judgement.
Clarified for me the timeline and geography of Bosnian wars.
The writer wants to find out why such violence is possible?
It’s definitely not the educational level. She shows examples how Shakespearian academics can orchestrate genocide, can build the basis for justifying ethnic cleansing, and eventually turn into convicts of crimes agains humanity.
War is phenomenon where our madness becomes visible
I would definitely read her other books.
Clarified for me the timeline and geography of Bosnian wars.
The writer wants to find out why such violence is possible?
It’s definitely not the educational level. She shows examples how Shakespearian academics can orchestrate genocide, can build the basis for justifying ethnic cleansing, and eventually turn into convicts of crimes agains humanity.
War is phenomenon where our madness becomes visible
I would definitely read her other books.
October 21, 2010
Anything by Janine Di Giovanni (wartime correspondent for The Times in the UK) is absolutely worth reading.
The way she writes echoes absolutely the feelings and sentiments of those truly affected by the war in the Balkans.
The way she writes echoes absolutely the feelings and sentiments of those truly affected by the war in the Balkans.
August 7, 2020
Sharp, unapologetic, empathic, harsh, unreadable, punchy, beguiling, unputdownable.
You read, cry, shiver, laugh, despair, ponder, worry, feel, watch, listen.
Humanity in history, the story of human beings.
You read, cry, shiver, laugh, despair, ponder, worry, feel, watch, listen.
Humanity in history, the story of human beings.
November 19, 2024
This is probably not a memoir in the way you're necessarily thinking. It has some personal details and places where it reads more as a straightforward, "I was there and this is what happened" way, but it's also very much a history of the conflict and a look behind the headlines by somebody who was there writing the stories at the time. It's kind of like everything that couldn't fit into a newspaper story: the action slows, the minute details can be lingered on, and the narrative can be interrupted to focus on context. It's a slow-moving, thoughtful reflection of the war, with enough personality in it to award it the title of memoir, but also plenty of content that is centered on a drawn-out lived experience rather than individual memories.
Personally, I really enjoyed this style. I felt like all the details were given room to breathe, and it all came together to create an impressive overview of the whole conflict, which enough detail and personal reflection to really bring home just what a war of this magnitude meant. There was a quiet urgency to this that demands your attention on every word, and the leisurely pace and non-chronological weaving through related thoughts and connected events really highlights just how complex a task reporting on war is.
Despite the fact this was heavy on technicalities, personalities, histories, and context, it was compellingly readable. Di Giovanni has a journalist's talent for arranging complex facts in a way thats easy to follow and genuinely gripping. Considering the sheer amount of information, it does not feel like a long book. Di Giovanni knows when to insert her own thoughts and reflections and when to step back and allow the broader picture to unfold; the combination of these things makes for a very comprehensive account that takes no effort to read. Regardless of your level of understanding of what happened in the Balkans in the last decade of the twentieth century, this is well worth a read.
Personally, I really enjoyed this style. I felt like all the details were given room to breathe, and it all came together to create an impressive overview of the whole conflict, which enough detail and personal reflection to really bring home just what a war of this magnitude meant. There was a quiet urgency to this that demands your attention on every word, and the leisurely pace and non-chronological weaving through related thoughts and connected events really highlights just how complex a task reporting on war is.
Despite the fact this was heavy on technicalities, personalities, histories, and context, it was compellingly readable. Di Giovanni has a journalist's talent for arranging complex facts in a way thats easy to follow and genuinely gripping. Considering the sheer amount of information, it does not feel like a long book. Di Giovanni knows when to insert her own thoughts and reflections and when to step back and allow the broader picture to unfold; the combination of these things makes for a very comprehensive account that takes no effort to read. Regardless of your level of understanding of what happened in the Balkans in the last decade of the twentieth century, this is well worth a read.
June 30, 2023
I know little to nothing about the Bosnian war, any memory I might have of current events from the late '90s clouded by the haze of adolescent oblivion. Revisiting this as a mature adult makes me wonder how I could have failed to absorb the details of what was essentially a humanitarian and ethical nightmare perpetuated by a series of mentally warped dictators; a campaign to "cleanse" the former Yugoslavia of Muslims, and reclaim ancient territory for Serbia and Bosnia. Be forewarned that you won't necessarily have a good understanding of how one country divided into many (Bosnia/Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, Kosovo, etc...) based on nationality, religion, and thousand-year-old hatreds, and may, indeed, be more confused then when you started reading. This are some very complex political and national rivalries going on here, but what Janine Di Giovanni offers is a intimate look at how the war effected ordinary people: the betrayals of neighbors and friends that led to stints in concentration camps, unrelenting fear as murderous and sadistic soldiers walked the streets with impunity, the pristine valleys and rural villages that supported families, now burned to a char. There are startlingly similarities to the war in Rwanda where, seemingly overnight, thousands of people were hacked to death by neighbors and friends who suddenly turned on them due to political propaganda. Reading this book is a haunting reminder of how the veneer of nationalism can be twisted to fit the whims of a megalomaniac president and to justify murderous intent.
February 21, 2022
Gripping and unspeakably horrifying are not on everybody's menu for selecting books, though readers drawn to fictitious "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" atrocities seem to enjoy a lot of it. To tell the whole maddening and inhumane story of Bosnian and Serbian warfare is almost impossible to do, yet author Di Giovanni manages to cover the conflicts, the geography and the people. And the atrocities. An unbearable history to absorb, it's important to see books like this written, and if author Philip Caputo says this book is the best book to read concerning the subject, it's a solid recommendation I agree with. The last chapters detailing the political figures behind the horror are most shocking of all, as they contain a chilling lack of answers as to why all the hatred, and where it all began with these people?
November 18, 2019
This is an incredible book and also one of the most depressing set of stories that I have ever read. The details of the wars in the Balkans filtered out over a number of years which diluted the impact of the news. Reading eye witness accounts of the Bosnian and Kosovo conflicts in a single volume feels much more impactful. I will never understand how apparently normal human beings, mostly men, can behave the way that they do when put in a position of power, be they leaders or common fighters with the upper hand. This book needs to be read but it isn't a comfortable experience. (Purchased secondhand from an Amazon seller.)
August 11, 2025
Comme je comprenais rien, j’avais besoin d’un livre. Je ne comprends toujours pas, parce qu’il va me falloir plus d’un livre. J’ai juste compris que le nationalisme, ça mène à des génocides, et qu’en France au moins, on ne parle pas assez de celui-là. Pourtant, on devrait. Ça aiderait à lutter contre l’islamophobie.
March 27, 2018
War through people
This book talks about the different wars in former Yugoslavia through the stories of regular people on both sides of the line. Quite touching. She is right, wars just don't stop, the same sorrow repeats itself over and over.
This book talks about the different wars in former Yugoslavia through the stories of regular people on both sides of the line. Quite touching. She is right, wars just don't stop, the same sorrow repeats itself over and over.
March 9, 2023
Read Madness Visible to further understand the barbaric effects and results of nationalism paired with religious fanaticism, and the dictators who lead their people to war and its atrocities. You'll recognize what is happening around the world today, including in the U.S.
October 20, 2017
powerful, she goes into all the villages in the region over seven years, she really knows it all
June 2, 2020
Unbelievable atrocities in the late 20th century in Europe. Written with passion and compassion
January 22, 2021
DNF @ 50 pages. Not much seemed to be happening except explosions land destruction. I wish there was more of a narrative
January 5, 2023
An excellent book, but so hard to read. Difficult to believe that people can be so savage towards one another, and saddening that it seems that it will continue to perpetuate.
July 15, 2023
A hard but important read. So much war-related violence, rape and torture. Most people outside of the region have no idea what went on in the Balkans in the 1990s.
October 4, 2023
Amazing, one of my favourite books
September 26, 2016
Much better than her book on her love affair with a French cameraman. Grounded, heartbreaking, and comprehensive. Her stories on the children of rape, the men who survived Srebenica, and the women who lost all of their male relatives are heartbreaking. She also brings the politicians and warriors like Arkan, Milosevic, and others to life whereas in the past they just seemed like men who were heartlessly evil. She gives you a look into their madness.
April 24, 2012
In this account of the war in Yugoslavia, Di Giovanni tries to explain the politics and factions at work here, the armies and paramilitary groups and the motivations behind their actions. I could not follow any of that, it is not her fault, she explains it very well, I just don't have a head for those kind of details. But in the interviews with the people affected, she interviews people from both sides of the conflicts, Serbians, Bosnains, Albanians and even some soldiers from Britain and France, you get the human story of the war, you see the madness of war.
She traveled extensively in the country, through dangerous areas, at one point she and some French colleagues thought they might be murdered by Serbians. She writes with candor and when she mentions destroying a notebook so her captors wouldn't find it, I could feel how tense the situation was.
I recommend this book.
She traveled extensively in the country, through dangerous areas, at one point she and some French colleagues thought they might be murdered by Serbians. She writes with candor and when she mentions destroying a notebook so her captors wouldn't find it, I could feel how tense the situation was.
I recommend this book.
May 31, 2013
Although I have been living in Sarajevo for the past year, this was the first book I read on the '90s conflicts in the Balkans. It's possible that it was easier for me to understand because I am by default more aware of certain people and details of the war, but this book clarified an incredible amount. A very engaging read because of its memoir format, I would wholly recommend this book to anyone wishing to learn more about what happened here during the '90s and why.
May 10, 2013
A Really fascinating - Di Giovanni's experience of what happens the destruction of Yugoslavia. She uses great narratives to tell the story, with details, profiles of various people. Sometimes the details - oh god, the horrific rapes, the torture, the mass murders - are difficult to stomach. But she writes in a sensitive and interesting and descriptive way.
September 24, 2012
A "book" written with the ink of hate towards thousands and thousands victims of WAR and with the hand that conceals the opressors deeds! Run away from this book as if you've seen an ugly rat. It's highly inaccurate!
July 30, 2016
Janine Di Giovanni is an excellent war reporter and I love her books. This book is no exception. It's a painful read, with lots of detailed descriptions of atrocities committed during the war in the former Yugoslavia. But it's an important book too, and brilliantly reported.
July 21, 2011
A powerful, amazing, disburbing, difficult must read.
August 19, 2012
Perfect introduction to understanding the break up of Yugoslavia of which I knew very little.
October 2, 2012
Really good accounts of the Bosnia war and Kosovo war. Even though she skips around a lot, the general direction of the book isn't hard to follow. A really interesting read
April 17, 2013
Fantastic memoir of the Bosnian war.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews