Narrator Steven Crossley

Simon Winchester, a British newspaper reporter for 30 years and the author
of 13 books (including The Professor and the Madman), has turned his attention
to the Balkans, an area he visited years ago on a road trip from Vienna to
Istanbul--a journey he retraced in the spring of 1999.
The Fracture Zone describes both of those trips, concentrating on the history
and character of the region more than the recent war and its aftermath.
Winchester has spent most of his career as a foreign correspondent, but his
more recent occupations as historian and a writer for Cond. Nast Traveler are
in evidence here. Winchester's angle on the Balkans is unique and well written:
those who have been bewildered at best and bored at worst by the Balkan conflict
may find that The Fracture Zone captures their interest better than hundreds of
news accounts of war atrocities. "Why is there, and seemingly always has been,
this dire inevitability about the Balkans being so fractious and unsettled
a corner of the world?" Winchester wonders aloud. That eternal question
continues to plague world statesmen and, though not fully answered here,
affords the opportunity for an interesting exploration.

Download File Size:213.32 MB

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