This non-fiction journalistic account of the Bosnian War focuses on a specific residential street during the Sarajevo siege. The author creates great empathy with all sides of the conflict through the stories of the residents of Logavina Street who are Muslim, Croat, and Serb. This was a very easy interesting read that introduced me to the subtleties and details of the genocidal conflict that I was barely aware of at the time. Highly recommended. ( )

Received this from First Reads/Good Reads giveaway.

Great book - really helped me understand what happened in Sarajevo in the early to mid 1990s with lots of personal details about individual families on a single city street. Demick writies with clarity and depth. Highly recommended. ( )

I was quite mesmerized by Nothing to Envy a couple years ago, so got this earlier book, republished recently, as soon as I knew it existed. The style is similar, focused on a small set of ordinary people caught up in national politics, in that case the bizarro delusion of North Korea, in this case the disintegration of Yugoslavia. The author was a journalist stationed in Eastern Europe in the mid 1990s, and arrived in Sarajevo after world “empathy fatigue” had set in. Slovenia and Croatia and Bosnia had declared independence, and Sarajevo was surrounded by Serb nationalists lobbing bombs and shooting bullets into public spaces. The newspaper editors suggested that she choose a street, and interview its residents over time. A page at the beginning indicates the scale: a map of nations after the Dayton peace accord showing the location of Sarajevo, a map of Sarajevo surrounded by Serb front lines showing the location of Logavina street, a map of Logavina street showing the locations of its residents and other landmarks. Though electricity was intermittent, plumbing was nonexistent, and food was scarce, Sarajevo citizens took pride in their multi-ethnic enclave. The author captures both the fear and the moral resistance in day to day life. North Korea is tough to beat for compelling reading, and through no fault of its own this book falls short, but it’s still immersive and insightful and well worth attention.

(read 6 Dec 2013)

A good portrait of the lives of the Sarajevo residents who remained in the city under siege. The inclusion of so many people (many of the residents on the titular street) helps show a wider range of experiences, but it also means that Logavina Street lacks the focus and emotional connection of Demick's work on North Korea, Nothing to Envy.

Despite the distance from the events of the book until today, I still found the book very absorbing.

I learned a lot about the events and background that I hadn't heard in the news at the time. The book was strong as a work of journalism, but it also was very vivid and sympathetic, giving a peek into many lives and households under the pressure of prolonged siege.

A very good book. ( )