Ceh, Nick, and Jeff Harder, eds. The Golden Apple: War and Democracy in Croatia and Bosnia. New York: Columbia UP, 1996. ISBN 0-880-33347-2

A fascinating book on the subject of the Balkans, this book originated from the documentary film, The Golden Apple: War and Democracy in the Former Yugoslavia, 1992-1993. The book follows the film in its interview format; it brings to paper everything that was said by those experiencing the events in the area. As Ceh and Harder note, "The main purpose of the interviews was to provide a forum for non-official spokespeople of Croatia and Bosnia to share their experiences and thoughts about the war in former Yugoslavia." And the purpose was accomplished. You hear from authors, journalists, professors, land surveyors, and actual prisoners of war, who each relate to you their own personal experiences on the terror and heartache of war in the region. They each have stories to share and it is in this that book achieves a personal tone with the reader, presenting many different ideologies and viewpoints across many ages.
Prophetic and deeply moving, The Golden Apple: War and Democracy in Croatia and Bosnia creates a highly personal tone and one that is ever so intimate on the war, and the catalysts surrounding its development: "Facts and the truth are left to the official sources; the `common' folk are only allowed in the arena of decontextualized emotion."

It is in the absence of statistics that make this book so special. It doesn't generalize terror or wartime atrocities on a wide scale but rather, presents to us individual lives. The entire book is a personal memoir from over twenty different people. It is truly this medium of uninterrupted colloquy that is so effective in bringing these people to life.

What is perhaps the most poignant part of the book is the attention brought to war prisoners and refugees. Many pages of narrative are spent on the story of a man named Izet, who was a prisoner of war in several Serbian concentration camps. Izet tells of torture, hunger, and death. What's most distressing for this man is the fact that his own neighbor turned him in. He says, "If I ever find my neighbor, the one who turned me in, I know what I would do to him, because it was the slaughter of us all." He describes how the Serbian guards would make him lie face down, tease him with a knife, and threaten to cut his ear. He shares how the Serbs would light a big bon fire and start throwing women and children into the flames. Mustafa, also a fellow sufferer in the concentration camp recalls, "They would kill twenty to thirty people a day. They stacked the bodies in one big pile then a fork lift would come and pick up the dead bodies like they were sand or rock..." It is this sort of dialogue related to you intimately that captures the essence of the suffering in the region.

Not only do you hear from prisoners of war but from people in different vocations: a land surveyor, a general, a mayor, a geography professor, and a group of university students. Each of them relates their stories, pain, and heartache of living and trying to stay alive in the region.

A man named Kazimir talks about his birth, about his growing up in "Yugoslavia" and the state of politics and ideology of Croatians. But most importantly he states his pride for his country and how he desires peace. A Bosnian railroad worker and refugee named Hussein talks about the destruction of his home and his slaughtered livestock. A psychologist named Miroslav tells of his dealings with rehabilitating victims of the war. All of these accounts are emotionally touching because they've come from the mouths of real people: people who have experienced first hand the effects of war.

According to one individual, "You start to wonder what your purpose on this earth is and are you really worth anything. . . . You just keep seeing that many people are dying from sickness, hunger, cold, bullets, shells - from everything. You think to yourself that this could happen to me at any moment, how long will I be able to withstand this, what could I do if anything, is there anything good in this world?" Indeed you do wonder how these people manage to survive. Especially those who have nothing to go home to, their house and land plundered down by an army on the move.

Perhaps the true question put down by all in the book is one of coexistence. Can Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, and Macedonia live side by side? The answer from the interviews points in only one direction as of yet: the hurt and distress that was caused was too great. Any peace that will come will be laborious and involved, and if one thing is clear from the book, healing and reconciliation will follow a long and winding road.

Kreshimir Rogina
HGPS 201 Student Spring 1998