17 Books about Serbia - get to know the Balkans better

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Serbia is a spirited, fascinating country, and tourism has grown steadily. Diverse, welcoming, and a hell of a lot of fun - his landlocked country in the heart of the Balkans is still delightfully off the tourist trail. Everything you want to know about it - from historical facts to what you shouldn't miss during your visit - it can be found on the pages of these books I've gathered in this list. 

Aleksandar Diklic - Belgrade the eternal city: A Sentimental Journey Through History

Asne Seierstad - With Their Backs To The World: Portraits From Serbia

A remarkable exploration of the lives of ordinary Serbs under the regime of Slobodan Milosevic-during the dramatic events leading up to his fall, and finally in the troubled years that have followed. Seierstad traveled extensively through Serbia between 1999 and 2004, following the lives of people from across the political spectrum. 

Brian Hall - The Impossible Country: A Journey Through the Last Days of Yugoslavia

In The Impossible Country, Brian Hall relates his encounters with Serbs, Croats, and Muslims - "real people, likable people" who are now overcome with suspicion and anxiety about one another. 

Danilo Kiš - A Tomb for Boris Davidovich

The characters in these stories are caught in a world of political hypocrisy, which ultimately leads to death, their common fate. It presents variations on the theme of political and social self-destruction throughout Eastern Europe in the first half of the twentieth century.

Emma Fick - Snippets of Serbia

An American artist chronicles her life in Serbia. Emma Fick illustrated her journey through the weird, the fun and the unique adventures to be experienced across this small Balkan country.

James Lyon - Serbia and the Balkan Front, 1914: The Outbreak of the great war

The book details the first battle of the First World War, the first Allied victory and the massive military humiliations Austria-Hungary suffered at the hands of tiny Serbia, while discussing the oversized strategic role Serbia played for the Allies during 1914. 

John K. Cox - The History of Serbia

This balanced and engagingly written history of Serbia will help readers to understand the complex web of Serbian history, politics, society, and culture and how the Serbs have dealt with the many political, military, and socioeconomic challenges in their history.

Lara Zmukic - Serbia - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture

Culture Smart! Serbia introduces you to a diverse, complex, and dynamic society. It offers background information on Serbian history and customs, and essential advice on what to expect and how to behave in different circumstances. If you show interest and respect, you will receive a warm welcome and lasting loyalty in return.

Laurence Mitchell - Serbia: The Bradt Travel Guide

This new dedicated Bradt guide has wide-ranging appeal for business visitors, adventure travelers, and those with art and history interests. It covers fundamentals such as getting there (by plane, an international train, and the new trans-European motorway), a wide range of local travel options including cycling and driving tours, and accommodations for all budgets and styles.

Marica Jelisavcic - Eat Like a Local-Serbia: Serbia Food Guide

Culinary tourism is an important aspect of any travel experience.  Food has the ability to tell you a story of a destination, its landscapes, and culture on a single plate.  Most food guides tell you how to eat like a tourist. 

Michael Parenti - To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia

Drawing on a wide range of unpublished material and observations gathered from his visit to Yugoslavia in 1999, Michael Parenti challenges mainstream media coverage of the war and uncovers hidden agendas behind the Western talk of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and democracy.

Misha Glenny - The Balkans: Nationalism, War and the Great Powers 1804 - 1999

Misha Glenny presents a lucid and fair-minded account of each national group in the Balkans and its struggle for statehood. This unique and lively history of Balkan geopolitics since the early nineteenth century gives readers the essential historical background to recent events in this war-torn area. 

Misha Glenny - The fall of Yugoslavia

The fall of Yugoslavia tells the whole, true story of the Balkan Crisis - and the ensuing war - for those around the world who have watched the battle unfolds with a mixture of horror, dread, and confusion.

Momo Kapor - A guide to the Serbian Mentality 

This book's readers will learn what Serbs like and dislike, whom they admire and despise, what they eat and what they drink, how they spend their free time, what they dream about and what they believe; in a word, book is about what constitutes a Serb from the inside.

Rebeca West - Black Lamb, Grey Falcon

A blend of travel journal, cultural commentary, and historical insight, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon probes the troubled history of the Balkans, and the uneasy relationships amongst its ethnic groups. The landscape and the people of Yugoslavia are brilliantly observed as West untangles the tensions that rule the country's history as well as its daily life.

Tim Judah - The Serbs: History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia

This history of the Serbs opens with the medieval kings of Serbia and a battle lost six centuries ago that still profoundly influences the Serbs. It then describes the idea of Serbdom and examines the tenuous ethnic balance fashioned by Tito and its drastic unravelling after his death.

Vladimir Dulović - Serbia In Your Hands  

Serbia in Your Hands is the travel guide for those looking for something off the beaten path. the book offers historical and cultural notes for each region in Serbia, along with practical information, such as the best places to stay, where to eat etc. It is the guide for those who want something different and who don't mind learning a thing or two during their travels.

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