Hearts Grown Brutal:: Sagas of Sarajevo

I couldn't put this book down. Every page, every line tells the truth behind the Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian conflict. All wars are complex and difficult to comprehend but Mr. Cohen helps us understand what happened just a few years ago. An accurate and eye-opening account. Some of the atrocities committed are so heinous, so vile as to bring us right back to images of the Third Reich. This is a very important work by a man who knows what he is talking about.

The destruction of Yugoslavia is not the easiest of subjects to fully comprehend. Cohen's informative and excellently written narrative is the best place to start. Cohen does more than just describe the events, he attempts to get beneath the surface to understand the psychology behind the unspeakable atrocities committed during the various wars. The trajedy of Yugoslavia cannot be understood without a recounting of the atrocities committed there during World War II, atrocities that largely went unpunished. All of this and more are recounted by Cohen in his very readable account. It is must reading for anyone interested in recent European history.

After a few hundred pages, when your ability to read about another Balkans family and their plight begins to wane, Cohen presents some new detail in an individual life that forces you to refocus on how the war crushed people so much like Americans and so very European that the "ancient hatreds" argument becomes sickening. To read about a 16-year-old girl's Tom Cruise poster and her death by shelling is to realize how much the West failed. Compelling, brutal, depressing, and vital reading.

It is said that history repeats itself, but never so quickly and with such dismal sameness as in the former Yugoslavia. I purchased this book in hopes of gaining a greater understanding of the conflict there, and managed to start reading it just in time for the current round of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo and NATO's (and the US's) disorganized response to it. The book is extremely well-written and structured in an interesting way, beginning with the story of one young man's decades-long search for his father, a Bosnian Muslim who faded from his family's knowledge in the chaos of World War II.The gut-wrenching conclusion to that first part of the book, so full of pathos that you can hardly believe it really happened (but know that it did) leads into the Bosnian war of the early 1990's, centering on the long and ugly death of the city of Sarajevo and the toll it took on several other families. Cohen pulls no punches in letting the reader know exactly how he feels about the UN's response to that conflict. I would certainly like to hear his take on the current situation there, which he all but predicted at the end of this book. I would recommend "Hearts Grown Brutal" to anyone who would like to sort out in their own minds what really happened in Bosnia and Sarajevo such a short few years ago. In light of today's headlines, the book certainly provides food for thought as to America's response and responsibilities in this area of the world.

I called Roger Cohen in Germany late one night after reading most of his book, and probably scared him that out in Kansas, someone knows about Bosnia. I had to tell him that he had written the book I wish I could have done. I've been to Sarajevo (in 1997 for a month staying with families of students I had hosted) and have been host to 15 Sarajevo students from 1993-1997, with two living with me at a time. (Every combination of religion was represented, by the way.) Mr. Cohen tells the truth. With Kosovo (what a surprise) starting up again, it is important that a writer of Cohen's abilities lead us back to the reality of the war in Bosna and Hercegovina. Along with Roy Gutman's books, and a Short History of Bosnia, this is a must read. I hope someone on Clinton's staff has it. George Laughead Jr.