In Sfakia: Passing Time in the Wilds of Crete (2008) | By Peter Trudgill
Crete has long been acknowledged as one of the most singular and unique parts of Greece. Its people keep a fierce hold on their traditions, customs and history. Practically a country of its own,... Full Story
A Free City in the Balkans: Reconstructing a Divided Society in Bosnia (2010) | By Matthew Parish
Since the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement in 1995 a number of books have emerged that focus on post-war, internationally driven state-building in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Full Story
2 May, 1996: It was a bright and sunny day (2010)
A newly reissued book seeks to keep the memories of the start of the siege of the Sarajevo alive as a cautionary tale for future generations. Full Story
The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History (2010) | By Jason Vuic
No other car, save perhaps the equally admired Skoda, has inspired as many jokes as the Yugo, the product of “cutting edge” technology from the former Yugoslavia which was ranked by US auto... Full Story
A powerful new novel follows the fortunes of five Bosnians, trying and not always succeeding, to find their way home. Full Story
Street without a Name: Childhood and Other Misadventures in Bulgaria (2008) | By Kapka Kassabova
Danube blues
Text by Nicholas Lezard for The Guardian*
Full Story
Through Another Europe (2009) | Edited by Andrew Hammond
When Henry Blount journeyed through Bosnia in the 1630s, two things struck him: the purity of the water and the great height of the Bosnians, which, he noted, “made me suppose them the offspring... Full Story
A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire (2008) | By M. Şűkrű Hanioğlu
Far too often, the narrative of the collapse of an empire becomes a moral drama. Wealth is drained away by decadence, and power undercut by corruption. There are attempts at recovery, reform,... Full Story
Realm of the Black Mountain: A History of Montenegro (2007) | By Elizabeth Roberts
Although released just in 2007, Realm of the Black Mountain: A History of Montenegro comes from a much older school of scholarship. With this much needed work, former diplomat Elizabeth Roberts... Full Story
Albania Nominates Ismail Kadare for Nobel Prize in Literature
23 December 2008 | Albania’s best known novelist, Ismail Kadare, was suggested as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature by the country’s literary circles.
Full Story
Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese (2004) | By Patrick Leigh Fermor
2008 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the original publication of Patrick Leigh Fermor’s Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese, considered one of the most important travelogues of the... Full Story
The Maze (2004) | By Panos Karnezis
This novel offers a new interpretation of the events in the aftermath of the First World War and the Greco–Turkish War that lead to the Greek population’s expatriation from modern Turkey’s Aegean... Full Story
The Siege (2008) | By Ismail Kadare
The Siege by Ismail Kadare was published recently in English, almost 40 years after it came out in Albania. The historical novel, written during Albania’s isolation imposed by the communist... Full Story
Reading Your Destination: Trabzon, Eastern Turkey
The Towers of Trebizond | Rose Macaulay. 1956 Full Story
Milorad Pavic | David Albahari | Alexandar Hemon
Full Story
Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey (1995) | By Isabel Fonseca
After spending four years among the Roma of Eastern Europe, Isabel Fonseca wrote a rich book about the way of life of the community that makes up the European Union’s largest ethnic minority.
Full Story
Hidden Treasures of Bulgaria (2006) | By Albena Shkodrova and Anthony Georgieff
Do you know what landmark can be found in Gumoshtnik? Or Svilengrad?
Full Story
The Fortress (1970) | By Meša Selimovic
The Fortress is a trip to Sarajevo as it was during the time of the Ottoman Empire. Full Story
Istanbul: Memories and the City (2003) | By Orhan Pamuk
The book that won Orhan Pamuk the Nobel Prize is a monotonous, according to some, but poetic portrait of Istanbul. Seen through the eyes of one of the most interesting modern Turkish... Full Story
