on Apr 14th, 2007
Book Review - With Their Backs to the World: A Portrait from Serbia
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: BeyondSarajevo, serbia, asne seierstad
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It’s a good book, although i must say i only read the first issue, that came out in 2000. or 2001, and that was interviews with people during the Milosevic regime, right after the bombing. It was pretty unbiased then, i hope that it is still like that as you say, with new interviews.
One thing is interesting and that you can now have a without-biased look of Serbians or any other nation for that matter, as individuals and not a collective - maybe even better than through any book - with help of blogs, forums, youtube, social networking and internet and technology in general, which was not possible in such an extent only 10 years ago. “The media” changes, and for better i think.
Hi Viktor,
Thanks for sharing your thought. I picked up this book at the bookstore and read it there while walking around and changing my seat. In Europe, you don’t get to read for free. I probably buy the book and read more in details.
I will write a post soon to elaborate on your comment and my response.
My local library has a copy of this book; and I checked it out about a month ago; unfortunately; I never got around to really reading it. After seeing this post, I wanted to re-check it out; and what would you know, someone else checked it out.
Hi Shania,
I reread that book after hovering back and forth in the bookstore thinking if I should buy the book. (Books in Europe (English language) are expensive.) I bought it anyway. It was a good decision.
You should definitely read the book once it becomes available. I think you will like it.
[…] He was someone who could have seen the reforms through much better than I ever could. He got people to cooperate. The coalition included fifteen parties. Zoran excelled when it came to patting others on the back, talking with everyone, listening to other points of view. I never had his patience. And eventually we became utterly paralyzed. [source] […]
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