The English Book Club – Devla Murphy: Through the Embers of Chaos: Balkan Journeys

While cycling hundreds of miles through beautiful yet tragically depopulated regions of Albania and the former Yugoslavia in the late 1990s, Dervla Murphy stayed with families forcibly uprooted, their lives devastated by murder and pillage. Her sensitive but probing conversations revealed the grief and confusion of ordinary people, many of whom were extraordinarily brave and resilient during the decade of decay. She investigates without preconceptions or judgment, and her encounters with people from every faction illustrate the war’s complexities, along with the power of propaganda and “help” from the “great ” powers.