To this day almost all narratives on Bosnia focus on the 1990s the war and the labyrinth
that Dayton's institutional system represents. They also tend to be imbued with a perspective
that often overdoes the ethnic and religious element. The truth is that beyond the causes of
war and its manifold tragedies we actually know very little of its forgotten consequences
once the CNN effect is long gone. As importantly we know very little of Bosnia today: a
society shaped by the past yes but also exposed to shifting 21st century dynamics. A society
haunted not only by war tragedies but also by a long-standing and long overlooked social
crisis. This revealing book thus tries to provide a somewhat different picture of Bosnia
twenty years after the war. Largely based on the author's experience in the field it is to
some extent an account of rural Bosnia in particular of the Drina River Valley which bore the
brunt of the ethnic cleansing in the 1990s. Yet and starting off from that isolated region of
open wounds unfinished issues and a cast of characters that range from displaced persons and
victims to committed women the book aims to overall provide a portrait of modern Bosnia as
such while also looking critically at the workings of the international community and European
diplomacy. The book with its landscape of activists Western diplomats and an underground
world in Sarajevo for LGBT and youths shows a country of so far failed Springs and leaders who
go on with their bad governance. Meanwhile the Europe towards which Bosnia theoretically moves
drifting between a poor understanding of the country a fear of conflict that acts as its
Achilles' heel as well as lack of genuine interest seems unable to really change things. In a
way therefore a country in limbo.
