Summary
An eyewitness account of the events that led to the slaughter of Muslims at Srebenica in July 1995, written by a Croatian-American reporter for "The New York Times". A "New York Times" Notable Book for 1998.
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Media Reviews
"Among the spate of books the Bosnian crisis has generated, Sudetic's tale of one family's struggle for survival is an essential and lasting contribution."
-- Kirkus
"...the scale of the Srebrenica killings demands a grander work, a narrative so rich and strong it not only describes the crime but dares to explain it and does so with eloquence and dignity....'Blood and Vengeance'...is such a book....[a] magnificent work....a huge contribution to the literature of the Bosnian war." -- Tom Gjelten
-- New York Times Book Review
"...Sudetic's sympathy for individuals suffering the consequences of nationalism, as well as his intimate knowledge of their language (he speaks Serbo-Croatian), customs and habits of mind, are more sophisticated than what he has gleaned from the library. The Celiks' story is so richly documented and enthralling that 'Blood and Vengeance' reads like a great novel." -- Christopher Merrill
-- San Francisco Chronicle Book Review
"Part of the power of 'Blood & Vengeance' is that, without being preachy or sanctimonious, it demands that readers be repulsed by the failure of the international community to act more quickly to halt the killing. It demands, too, that all of us examine our responsibility as passive witnesses when genocide is played out before our eyes. If you can read just one book about Bosnia, this is it." -- Blaine Harden
-- Washington Post Book World
Bibliographic Details
Publisher: Penguin Group USA
Published date: 1999
Size: 5.5 x 8.75 inches
Weight: 0.85 pounds
Pages: 393
Publisher's Notes
Taking its place on the short list of essential books about the Bosnian struggle, Blood and Vengeance succeeds in putting a human face-on the conflict, rendering its devastation comprehensible to Western readers. Perhaps the most notorious and disputed outrage of the war was the massacre of as many as 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica. Although previously designated a safe area by the United Nations Security Council, Srebrenica was overrun by General Ratko Mladic's Bosnian Serb forces while U.N. peacekeeping troops stood by impotently. With novelistic eloquence and journalistic acumen, Sudetic follows several generations of the Celiks, the Muslim family he is related to by marriage, which met their tragic destiny at Srebrenica. His indelible portrait of these inhabitants of a remote mountaintop village outside of Srebrenica not only illumines the historical context of the tragedy but, more important, reveals the human impact of the horror. Blood and Vengeance contains the sweep and power of a panoramic historical painting, yet possesses the heartbreaking intimacy of a family snapshot.
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