The sheer quality and depth of the writing make it one of the great books of the century * * Times Literary Supplement * * Impossible to put down, both timeless and of its time - a travel book and epic narrative history brimming with passion, anger, scholarship and intuition, hatred and love * * Observer * * One of the supreme masterpieces of the twentieth century . . . As a book about Yugoslavia it's a kind of metaphysical Lonely Planet that never requires updating -- GEOFF DYER It is hard to convey the flavour of a book so rich in observation, history, philosophy, political ideas and ironic humour * * The Times * * It is a brilliant antidote to the disease that would have us believe that these are faraway countries about which we know nothing * * Guardian * * Such incandescent writing - you find yourself wanting to mark every sentence in order to go back and relish it again -- BRIAN ENO Rebecca West's magnum opus . . . one of the great books of our time * * New Yorker * * You will search in vain for a more original, assured and companionable guide to former Yugoslavia * * Financial Times * * Dame Rebecca, the finest reporter of her generation, saw everything . . . A remarkably easy read * * Sunday Telegraph * * Written with a fierce intelligence that any journalist must envy and admire * * Daily Telegraph * *
