Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Extract from Books on Bosnia, London 1999, 13 Mar 2000
By A Customer
The great value of this book lies in the refugee voices themselves, which take up two thirds of it. Drawn carefully from all national groups, and arranged in five sections - on the circumstances of leaving, on dreams of home, on everyday refugee life, on the child's view, and on starting life anew (i.e. giving up on ever going home) - the refugees evoke unforgettably, whether in unadorned prose or sometimes in moving poetry, the inhumanities visited upon ordinary people from all walks of life during the wars in Bosnia and Croatia. The editorial material that makes up the remaining third of the book - introductions, notes on the refugee contributors, afterwords - is for the most part sober and non-patronizing, although in places it suffers from a naive apoliticism that blurs the real contours of the war and its architects
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Valuable insight, 2 Sep 2009
The book is a collection of very short pieces from refugees in the Bosnian and Croatian wars, telling their stories and poems. The book tries to represent views from all ethnic groups, including Bosnian Muslims, Bosnian Serba, Croats, Albanians and Bosnian Jews, although the book leans towards the Muslim view, as there were more refugees from that group. It is split into five sections, the journey out, dreams of home, everyday refugee life, children's voices and starting life anew.
I found it a fascinating insight into the plight of refugees, and there were some tragic stories, the one that touched me the most was a mother who made a puppet of her husband (from whom her and her children were separated in different countries) so that her children would not forget him. The pieces written by children were very insightful, as it is often assumed that they are not aware of what is going on in a war situation. All very moving.
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