The Fracture Zone

Written by Simon Winchester

Narrated by Steven Crossley

Award-winning journalist and author Simon Winchester takes readers on a personal tour of the Balkans. Combining history and interviews with the people who live there, Winchester offers a fascinating glimpse into the complex issues at work in this chaotic region. Unrest in the Balkans has gone on for centuries. A seasoned reporter, Winchester visited the region twenty years ago. When Kosovo reached crisis level in 1997, Winchester thought a return visit to the beleaguered area would help to make sense out of the awful violence. He decided to use Vienna and Istanbul, two great cities whose rivalries helped create the dynamics at work today, as the beginning and end points of his trip. Not specifically a book about war, it is more a portrait of a place and its people in turmoil. Simon Winchester offers an insightful look at a little understood conflict. Steven Crossley's masterful narration will make listeners feel as if they have entered the combat zone.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 13, 2012
• ISBN: 9781461812944

Reviews for The Fracture Zone

[broughtonhouse · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Other books by this author which I have read have been about a fractured planet (Krakatoa, etc). This one focuses on people and is an easy to read, topical history of the Balkans wrapped up in a travel book. Its a very good introduction to reaching at least some understanding of what was a puzzling, brutal and unnecessary war between some slavic peoples at the end of last century.

[oreillynsf_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

One of the great things about Winchester is his ability to weave centuries of history into contemporary travel writing. In this book he puts today's tragedies in the context of hundreds of years of bitter feuds and disagreements.Part travelogue, part narrative history, part social history, Winchester deftly combines interviews with the historical record, helping to clarify why so many wars and atrocities have been committed in this region. What struck me most was how the beliefs and ideas of ordinary people have been so carefully manipulated by political and religious leaders so as to consolidate power and perpetuate centuries old disputes. It's hard to be optimistic about the future of the region after reading this powerful book. Winchester was a newspaper journalist for 30 years, and the strength of this narrative makes all too clear how today's 24 hour cable news journalism -- of food fights in the name of balance -- do a disservice to understanding, and ultimately the truth.

[dickcraig · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I had read Kaplan's book "Balkan Ghosts" and found that Winchester's treatment of the area was much more readable. He takes us through the Balkans after the war and shows how we got there. Memories die hard. They are still fighting battles lost 600 yeas ago.

[jcbrunner · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Simon Winchester is a pleasant writer and the book an easy read. The problem of the book is structural. It is a curious mix of a holiday travelogue mixed with a war reporting excursion. Reporting on the Kosovo War both paid for Winchester being in the Balkans and prevented him from visiting Serbia, the keystone country of the Balkans. As a British tourist, he also fails to present the full picture of the Balkan countries which are a wedged no-man's land between the Danube and the Adria. Not including the Danube and the Adria also removes the crucial influence of Hungary and Venice on the Balkans. Winchester thus overplays the Austrian and Turkish influence and interest in the region. Austria was much more interested in maritime access at Trieste. "The bridge over the Drina" splendidly showed the Ottoman neglect of this backward and resource-poor region. As the European Union and NATO had to learn anew, one could, as the Austrian and Ottoman Empires had done before, pour vast sums of money into the regions without creating an effect. Angry young men remain the chief export of the region.The two highlights of the book are Winchester's visit of two men. Firstly, he meets the locked away skull of the Grand Viszir who botched the siege of Vienna and paid for it with his life. His skull became a cherished trophy mounted in a silver receptacle. Out of new-found piety, the recent Prince Eugene exhibition in Vienna displayed only the skull-less receptacle (fortunately for the curious, the catalogue includes an old picture of the Baroque ensemble). Secondly, Wiinchester meets with Michael Jackson, the general not the singer. The British General Michael Jackson commanded the NATO forces that liberated Kosovo out of Serbia's deadly embrace. Having leisurely traveled from Vienna to Sarajevo to Dubrovnik and Albania, Winchester joins the NATO forces in crossing into Kosovo. He even manages some feat of war tourism driving around and into the Kosovo airfield desired by both NATO and the Russians. The book ends with him relaxing in Bulgaria and Turkey. Overall, a mixed travelogue that misses most of Balkan history and its central country. The main purpose of this booklet was the reimbursement of Winchester's travel bills at which he succeeded.