The Fracture Zone: My Return to the Balkans [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

The book's premise is to share the author's experiences through the context of his former visit during peaceful times to the same region, historical perspective on why and how the tensions and conflicts have evolved, and on-the-ground insights from conversations with those who hate and those who do not.

The effect is not unlike what one's own experiences might have been like if a time machine brought us first into the year 1858 in South Carolina and then in the same area in the year 1865. Without more perspective, someone from Kosovo would not be able to understand what had happened between the two times. That is what the author has been trying to accomplish in this book.

Through flashbacks and narration, you will travel twice (once before the wars, and once after them) through the former Yugoslavia on a journey starting in Vienna and ending in Istanbul. You will have many unforgettable moments, like seeing thousands of displaced refugees squatting in a former alpine meadow while overwhelmed army forces try to save lives. You'll learn what a Sarajevo rose is (no, it's not what you think). And you will find how historical lessons can be used as excuses to fan current hatreds of those who are similar and different from oneself.

All of this has an incredible immediacy because this is like the worst of the Nazi era, being relived in many ways in our own times.

The author keeps asking, why? He poses some answers, but ultimately, it is unanswerable. Perhaps in time, we can make sense of this terrible tragedy.

Here are some cautions: Anyone who wants a serious history will not like this book. Anyone who wants a brilliant essay will be even less satisfied.

If you are open to a new approach to understanding an extremely complex circumstance, you will find this book to be interesting. It will expand your curiosity, and that will be good. We all need to ponder the lessons here, to help avoid their recurrence. Share this book with one other person, so the memory will expand.

Donald Mitchell

Coauthor of The Irresistible Growth Enterprise and The 2,000 Percent Solution

(donmitch@fastforward400.com)

Wincester is sensitive to history. He recommends "The Bridge on the Drina" about the sad history of the Serbs by the Croat Ivo Andric who won the Nobel Prize. He also intersperses bits of history about many geographic points he travels through between Vienna and that city that some still think of as Constantinople.

Books by journalists who served as correspondents during the military action contain less censored and probably better written material than what appeared in original on-the-spot news articles they might have written. The writer has had time to reflect on what transpired, obtain additional historical and contextual information, correct misinterpretations and generlly improve his or her writing.

As part of my job and because of a personal interest I have in the Balkans, I have been reading material about this part of the world for some years, including the Andric book and books by the University of Michigan historian John Fine. I read this book as part of my continuing education and I recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the Balkans.