The Impossible Country: A Journey Through the Last Days of Yugoslavia

by Brian Hall

Overview

"A tragic portrait . . . presented with sympathy and frequently with humor . . . [of] a disparate people who were never united except by their resentment of a foreign conqueror." - Atlantic Monthly

In The Impossible Country, Brian Hall relates his encounters with Serbs, Croats, and Muslims-- "real people, likeable people" who are now overcome with suspicion and anxiety about one another. Hall takes the standard explanations, the pundits' predictions, and the evening news footage and inverts our perceptions of the country, its politics, its history, and its seemingly insoluble animosities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140249231
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/01/1995
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	528,483
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.95(d)

About the Author

Brian Hall is the author of three novels, including I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company, his acclaimed story of the Lewis and Clark expedition, as well as three works of nonfiction.

Editorial Reviews

Hall, a freelance American journalist, was one of the last outsiders permitted to travel freely in Yugoslavia during the final days of its existence. From early May to mid-September 1991 he questioned members of the various Balkan ``tribes'' in Zagreb, Belgrade, Sarajevo and points in between, listening to comments on their history, prejudices, superstitions, fears, aspirations and opinions of other ethnic and national groups. With an unbiased attitude and colorful writing style (``his Ks sounding like chicken bones going down a garbage-disposal unit''), Hall describes the last days of peaceful coexistence among Yugoslavia's religious and ethnic communities and delineates conflicts that would trigger the horrors of ``ethnic cleansing'' and war. In one particularly telling section, he recounts the dynamics of hatred swirling around Apparition Hill in Medjugorje, where religious pilgrims flock to witness the appearance of the Virgin. Hall's account, which he modestly calls a travel book, is an excellent source for understanding the complications and contradictions of the current Balkan crisis. (July)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In this masterly account of the former Yugoslavia's decay and collapse in 1991, American journalist Hall's powerful sense of location and mentality is expressed through a blend of close friendships, high-level interviews, and courageous questions. Hall moves comfortably among Serbs who perceive the nation as a "superpersonality," Croats who remain ambivalent toward their World War II fascist regime, and Muslims like Bosnian president Aliija Izetbegovi'c who claim only the "freedom to define themselves as a people." Religion is omnipresent, and Hall interprets the meaning of the unfinished, cavernous Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava, the intimacy among Muslims at Jajce Mosque in Bosnia, and the wonder of those pursuing the vision of the Virgin Mary at Medjugorje. Hall lacks the personal involvement Slavenka Drakuli'c offers in her Balken Express (LJ 4/15/93), and he neglects Slovenia and Macedonia, but his book may be the finest English-language depiction of its kind, if only for his fidelity to his title. Highly recommended for academic and larger public libraries.-Zachery T. Irwin, Pennsylvania State Univ.- Erie

Library Journal