I stopped by a book store in Prague one morning, intended to find good books about the Czech Republic when I spotted “With Their Backs to the World.” It is written by Asne Seierstad, a Norwegian journalist who spent an extensive amount of time in Serbia from 1999 to 2004 reporting for the Norwegian press.

The author explored the lives of a diverse group of Serbs with dissimilar thinking, hopes and dreams. Through her non-judgmental stand, we can see Serbians through different lenses: a farmer who struggle to put roof over his head, a student’s hope of Serbia’s place in the EU or nationalists’ longing to return to “easy” days of Milosevic regime.

For once, we can get a without-biased look of Serbians as individuals and not an egoistic collective–often portrayed by the media–which hates Muslims and Albanians and started one war after another only to lose them all.

If you have read this book, please share your thoughts.

Tags: , ,