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Starling Lawrence

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Montenegro Paperback – 1 Oct. 1998

by Starling Lawrence (Author)

4.2 16 ratings

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English traveller, Auberon Harwell happens upon a remote valley in the mountains of Montenegro with World War I a dark prophecy on the horizon. Posing as a botanist, but in reality a confidential agent of an English peer, he becomes involved in the regions' tangled politics and passions.

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Print length

416 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Black Swan
Publication date

1 Oct. 1998
ISBN-10

0552998079
ISBN-13

978-0552998079
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Product description

From the Back Cover

In the forbidding beauty of the mountains of Montenegro, with World War I a dark prophecy on the horizon, an English traveller, Auberon Harwell, happens upon a remote valley. He is posing as a botanist, but in reality is the confidential agent of a powerful English peer who recognises the seeds of advantage and threat in the region.

The Montenegrin Serbs are a fierce and independent people, whose greatest hero is Danilo Pekocevic, warrior patriarch of the valley. His only son, Toma, loves a girl he cannot marry, the daughter of a neighbouring Muslim landowner. Harwell, against all reason and hope, falls in love with Toma's mother, who prays that her son may emigrate to escape this burden of violence and vengeance.

Harwell is bound by agonizing choices and the obligations of honour, duty and love. Ultimately he is forced from his position of careful neutrality into a confrontation which shakes the foundations of the world he thought he knew...

About the Author

Starling Lawrence is the author of the acclaimed story collection Legacies. He lives in New York City, where he is editor in chief of W.W. Norton.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Black Swan (1 Oct. 1998)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0552998079
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0552998079

Best Sellers Rank: 2,165,472 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 76,553 in Adventure Stories & Action
- 102,735 in Historical Fiction (Books)
- 151,000 in Contemporary Fiction (Books)

Customer reviews:
4.2 16 ratings

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Starling Lawrence

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4.2 out of 5

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AfricanD

Traveling to the Dalmatian Coast?? Read this book!!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 May 2013

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I thoroughly enjoyed this book; wonderfully atmospheric and well-drawn characters. This is an excellent book that explains, in a novel format, the ancient history of this part of the world.

2 people found this helpful

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Craig Lawrence

Stunning - an escape from Lockdown!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 April 2020

I bought this book on a whim in a secondhand bookshop in NYC because the author has the same surname as me! Wow - a stunning find! I genuinely could not put it down and have just spent the last 48hrs immersed in it! Fantastic descriptions, a cracking story, beautiful writing and believable characters set in a part of the world that I now want to visit as soon as possible. Well done Mr Lawrence - I am now set to read more of your books! Strongly recommended, particularly to anyone who wants an escape from lockdown!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 September 2013

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If you want to sense the country or even try to understand the basis of the politics this is a good start. Well written it is really a epic on character, morals, sensibilities and love. I read it while on holiday there and I think that certainly heightened the enjoyment as what he writes about the landscape is so vivid and true.

2 people found this helpful

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tomduro@yahoo.co.uk

A fantastic view of Montenegrian Culture

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 June 2001

This book is fantastic. It captures the lifestyle, feelings and culture of Montenegro. It provides an view of what different european people thought of Montenegrians. A beautiful book for a beautiful Country!

2 people found this helpful

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Mrs. K. Warwick

A Balkan Saga

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 April 2003

I've just finished reading this and I'm left with the feeling that I'd like to know more about the history of the Balkans.
In places it's a slow-moving book. I skipped over a few of the long descriptive passages but it has some great scenes and gives a real flavour of great historical hatreds and characters bound to these nations struggles.

There was a rather gratuitous sex scene, near the beginning, involving a woman with no tongue and a hammock but otherwise I really enjoyed the book and the last few chapters are exciting and moving.

4 people found this helpful

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harlow

Great, my bis bis Nona

Reviewed in Canada on 6 January 2016

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Great, my bis bis Nona, who originates from Montenegro around this time period was pleased with this book and its actualities

One person found this helpful

khratoy

Ist OK als Reiselektuere

Reviewed in Germany on 14 August 2013

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Macht Spaß zu lesen, wenn man unterwegs vor Ort die beschrieben Orte des Landes besucht. Ansonsten ohne direkten Bezug zum Land etwas lahm aus meiner Sicht.

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Paul Haspel

An interesting if flawed Balkan adventure novel

Reviewed in the United States on 15 October 2011

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One of the strengths of Starling Lawrence's "Montenegro" is the care with which the author captures the stern, austere, rock-strewn beauty of that small country in the Balkans. Anyone who has driven the road from Kotor to the country's former capital of Cetinje, and has taken a car up Mount Lovcen with its 27 switchbacks. will appreciate the accuracy of Lawrence's descriptions of the Montenegrin landscape. Set in the years before World War I, "Montenegro" mixes foreign intrigue, war, romance, espionage, and all sorts of physical danger and privation. The novel's protagonist, Auberon Harwell, is an Englishman who is officially traveling in the Balkans as a botanist in search of rare specimens; in fact, however, he has been sent into Montenegro as a sort of amateur spy. His employer, a supercilious British lord, hopes to benefit politically from the tension among Serbs, Turks, and Austrians in that hotly contested part of the world. Lawrence captures well the manner in which Balkan life can combine pastoral beauty and hideous violence. He also does well at interweaving two love stories -- one between Harwell and Lydia Wadham, an Englishwoman who teaches in Cetinje; the other between a young Muslim woman named Aliye and a young Serb man named Toma. Toma faces conflicts of his own: his father, Danilo, wants him to look back into the past and continue the 500-year-old fight against all of Great Serbia's enemies, while his mother, Sofia, wants him to look to the future, leave for America, and secure an education. Less deftly handled are a couple of important plot elements. When an important character suffers a wrist injury late in the novel, the incident seems contrived, forced upon the narrative in order to advance plot developments that Lawrence seems anxious to introduce. And a natural cataclysm that occurs at a climactic point of action in the novel has a definite air of deus ex machina about it; it seems to have been imposed upon the novel's plot, rather than to grow logically out of it. But if you're looking for an unashamedly old-fashioned adventure story, "Montenegro" may be to your liking.

3 people found this helpful

Tomking

Zwiespältig

Reviewed in Germany on 31 October 2014

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Sehr poetisch, langatmig. Wem das gefällt, der wird seine Freude daran haben. Bin mehrfach daran gescheitert, dass Buch zu Ende zu lesen.

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John Zvolensky, Jr.

Historical Montenegro

Reviewed in the United States on 15 April 2016

Verified Purchase

A good read for those who have traveled to or are about to travel to the country. Slow start, but did not disappoint.

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