Customer Reviews

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

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During the war in Bosnia, I am ashamed to say that I understood very little about what was really going on. The situation seemed so complex that I was put off reading any articles that might then have shed light on my ignorance. Now, with this remarkable book, I have finally come to understand what really happened. Chuck Sudetic skilfully takes you from the birth of Christ, the Romans, the Ottoman invasions and finally to the situation today. He narrates the war period from the point of view of the Celik family. And in so doing he succeeds in breaking your heart as he recounts the human disaster that took place. Everyone should read this book.

Chuck Sudetic has written one of the most important books of the 1990s. I can attest from first-hand knowledge of the Balkans that this work is astonishingly unbiased, even as it is wrenching in its descriptions of the effects of an unwanted war on average men and women. By mid-book, the reader may begin to feel that too much detail has been accumulated on the families the author follows through the Bosnian nightmare--but then, in a matter of pages, the horror begins. First, comes a series of random cruelties, then broader atrocities, until the book climaxes in its unforgettable description of the siege and fall of Srebrenica, one of the worst (and most preventable) tragedies of our time. This is when the richness of the family saga begins to resound--Sudetic recreated a now-lost world then let us witness its destruction. It is a work of great commitment and honesty. This book captures the desperation, ignorance, cowardice, heroism, corruption and indestructible hopes of men and women swept up in a war they never fully comprehended. This, not the diplomatic headlines, is the bitter reality of our times for millions of human beings, from the Balkans to Indonesia. Sudetic is not an elegant stylist, but for the purposes of such a grim narrative, his "Joe Friday," deadpan prose serves far better than would a more self-consciously literary approach. While other fine books have been written about the self-destruction of Yugoslavia (Tom Gjelten's "Sarajevo Daily" comes to mind), I find "Blood and Vengeance" an indispensible work. By telling the intertwined stories of Muslim and Serb Orthodox families on one mountainside, Sudetic encapsulates the broad tragedy of a region. I cannot recommend this book too strongly, and feel it would better serve as a text for today's university students than a library full of theoretical works on international relations. Chuck Sudetic has captured the harshness of our world, as well as the ineradicable human will to survive, in a book that deserves far greater recognition than it has received. Please read this book--and give it as a gift to those around you who merit a richer understanding of the post-Cold War world. I only wish I could place a copy directly into the hands of each person reading this review.

After reading tremendous books like David Rohde's "End Game," Holbrooke's "To End a War," Kaplan's "Balkan Ghosts," Rebecca West's "Black Lamb, Grey Falcon," Michael Sells' "A Bridge Betrayed," and a host of others, this one stands out as the very best yet written on Bosnia. Sudetic successfully weaves the macro policy issues with an in-the-trenches view of one family's experience in Srebrenica. The end product is a devastating indictment of the international community for allowing atrocities like this to occur again, after similar incidents occuring in WWII Germany, Post Vietnam Cambodia, Guatemala and Rwanda. After seeing the aftermath of Srebrenica's downfall in person and knowing many of the people involved, I can say that Sudetic has unquestionably written the definitive account of this tragic chapter in Bosnia's history.

This great book exposes truths that the world needs to hear, and acknowledge. First, the convenient fallacy that all sides in the Bosnian war were equally guilty of the evils perpetrated there. They weren't. Sudetic also dispenses with the international community's implication that the corrosive violence of 1992 - 1995 was inevitable. It wasn't, but rather was deliberately manipulated by nationalist Serb leaders. And he damningly shreds the fiction that the U.N. did what it could to prevent the Srebrenica massacre, exposing an unbelievable moral cowardice & incompetence, particularly of Bernard Janvier & Yasushi Akashi. Riveting, searing, ultimately heartbreaking. Read it.

Blood and Vengeance is a gripping account of the date of the unlucky people who were trapped in the Srebrenica "safe" zone. Like no other book, it details the extent of the massacres and the direct participation of ordinary citizens and Serbian higher ups in the massacre of thousands of civilians. A witness even places Gen. Mladic personally supervising executions in a vast killing field that went on for hours. The ineptitude and cowardice of the UN is truly bewildering. The author has trouble getting the story going. The narrative jumps abruptly from the daily life of a Bosnian Muslim family before the war, to the unfolding political events, to Balkan history and even the author's comings and goings. Much attention is paid to minute details, while fundamental areas are glossed over. It is not until the second half, when the featured Muslim Bosnian family is forced into Srebrenica, that everything comes into place. The unfolding international events begin to flow seamlessly into the personal story line, and the book ends up reading like the best (and saddest) of thrillers. Yet the question remains unanswered: How could your neighbor turn into your torturer overnigh

Chuck Sudetic has written an excellent book which weaves the experiences of one family in the Serbian conflict with the Muslims Bosnia into the larger political and social context of violence and aggression. The book is a page turner, written in a very engaging journalistic style. The author's criticism of Muslim and Serb atrocities alike appears balanced, and his anger at the failures of politicians and peacekeepers shines clear. The experiences of the Celik family make the massacres and assassinations very real, the reader will be riveted as to the welfare of each family member as they try to escape the violence.

The reader will find that the book gives them an excellent overview of the conflict both in the experiences of individuals and in the political and military decision making.

What struck me at first about this book was the clear and concise history of Yugoslavia Sudetic provides in the opening chapter. He draws together the salient points of hundreds of years of Balkan history to set the stage for the recent troubles.

Following the Celik family as they are displaced by the war and eventually holed up in the ill-fated town of Srebrenica is moving. The larger picture of how the war progressed and the atrocities committed, by both sides, is infuriating, as is the military inaction of the western governments and the UN. (In fairness, western military action may have only added fuel to the fire - I recommend Rohde's End Game to see the perspective of the troops on the ground and the difficulties they were faced with.)

In all, this book leaves a very real feeling of loss with you, and you will probably come away feeling like people in the Balkans do today: sad at their loss, hungry for revenge, hopeful for a better future.

This book enabled me to understand the Bosnian war from an individual angle. For someone recently interested in the wars in the FRY region, Sudetic's book is a fantastic introduction that provides much more than a basic understanding. It is a personal story interwined with the techinical workings of the war, the politics of the Serbian government and the reactions of the international community. It was a great read. I couldn't put it down.

If you read only one book about Bosnia, about war, or about one writer trying to commemorate the countless victims of senseless slaughter, BLOOD AND VENGEANCE should be the book. This is the best, most devastating book I've read in years; something every American who cares about what's happening in the world must read--now.

Widely acknowledged as one of the best books on the war in Bosnia, Sudetic's book offers a unique insight into the horrors of the Bosnian war. What is it then that separates Sudetic's book from the other books on the war in Bosnia? First, it is extraordinarily well written and highly interesting from the very beginning to the end. It captured my attention from the very moment I started reading it. Even though this book contains almost 400 pages it never becomes boring.

The first section of the book contains a brief yet momentous introduction of the history of Bosnia. It helps explain the root causes of the war in Bosnia, an aspect that will prove invaluable to novice readers on the subject matter. Sudetic then allows the reader to follow one Bosnian family (the Celik family) throughout the entire Bosnian war. As a reader, one inadvertently becomes part of the Celik family; one empathizes with them and shares their deepest emotions and concerns. When the war in Bosnia began, the Celik family fled from their village of Kusupovici to Srebrenica. Srebrenica was by then already under siege and about 40,000 people from the neighbouring villages sought shelter in this little eastern town. Srebrenica was constantly shelled by Bosnian Serb army and only a few U.N. convoys were allowed to enter Srebrenica in order to deliver food and medical supplies to its approximately 40,000 refugees. For three long years Srebrenica's people were isolated from the rest of the world, they had little food, no clean water, electricity and virtually no medical supplies. Diseases and infections were commonplace. People were dying from hunger daily.

Sudetic brilliantly describes the experiences of the Celik's family throughout the war. Will all members of the Celik family manage to survive the war and how will this gruesome war affect their future? What will happen to Paja, Huso, Hiba and Sanela? As a reader, one gets to know their deepest fears, concerns and desires. It is virtually impossible to remain indifferent to their plights when reading the book. Sudetic's book thus stands out from the other literature on the war in Bosnia because it is personal. It is not simply another book about Bosnian people in general, not that there is anything wrong with that. However if you follow one particular family for an extensive period of time you become one with them. You experience their suffering as well as their joy.

As is well known, Srebrenica fell on July 12, 1995 after three years of Serb occupation. What followed in the ensuing days constituted one of the most severe human rights abuses in Europe since World War II. In only a matter of days, Bosnian Serb forces summarily executed approximately 8000 Muslims, one of whom was my grandfather. I remember that day perfectly well and it was one of the worst days of my life. In my opinion, Sudetic provides one of the most detailed accounts of the Srebrenica massacre. Days leading to the massacre are also described in detail. While 8000 Muslims were being slaughtered before the eyes of the entire international community, the U.N. did nothing to stop the bloodshed despite the fact that Srebrenica had been designated a "safe area". In point of fact, the U.N. was completely indifferent to the plight of these people. Sudetic explains this well and also provides numerous documents that corroborate this fact. The U.N. was in fact authorized to order air strikes against Bosnian Serb army but deliberately chose not to do that because they did not want to "exacerbate" the conflict. Instead, they gave Serbs the green light to kill 8000 Muslims and to expel all women and children. The Muslims who were trying to escape from Srebrenica to Tuzla were frequently ambushed by Bosnian Serb army; many of them never made it to Tuzla.

Sudetic further provides a comprehensive account of the atrocities that took place in Srebrenica after the town was overrun by Bosnian Serb army. Muslim men were taken to different locations to be shot. Those who survived have been able to testify about these heinous atrocities. Hurem Suljic had been taken to a meadow along with other Muslim men. Bosnian Serb army then opened fire and one man fell on Suljic. Suljic remained there motionless until the executioners left the site. Another man had also survived the massacre and together the two men managed to escape. Hurem Suljic later testified that the Muslim prisoners were tortured; some had their throats slashed while others were hit on their heads by an axe or a hammer.

Sudetic's book thus gives us a comprehensive and well researched account of the Bosnian war. I have one problem with this book though and that is a flawed and sometimes biased analysis of Bosnian Muslims. When describing Bosnian Muslims, Sudetic frequently relies on the life of the Muslims who lived in the countryside. Sudetic sometimes wrongly assumes that this way of life is characteristic of the entire Islamic community throughout Bosnia. For example, the Muslims who lived in the countryside frequently dressed in "dimije" (traditional clothing for Muslim women of the countryside) and they sometimes covered their heads. One gets the impression that Bosnian Muslims are a primitive people. However, for the overwhelming majority of the urban Muslims this way of life was obsolete and atavistic. Most Muslim women who lived in urban societies dressed and behaved as any contemporary woman of the West. Furthermore, according to one of the foremost experts on the history of Bosnia Noel Malcolm, Bosnian Muslims were among the most secularized Muslims in the world. Therefore, one must conclude that Sudetic's description of Bosnian Muslims is misleading and inadequate.

Aside from this minor shortcoming, this is irrefutably the best book about the war in Bosnia. It is an extraordinarily well written account of the Srebrenica massacre. There are many brilliant books about the war in Bosnia but Sudetic's book stands out from the rest for the following reason: it involves the reader in the story in a way you never thought possible. It makes you angry, happy, sad, agitated and devoid of hope at the same time.

A masterpiece!