Title: Unbeatable guide
Product review: After completing a two month journey through the Balkans, I came to the conclusion that nothing had helped me more to get my feet wet than Robert Kaplan's Balkan Ghosts. His insight into one of the most fascinating parts of the world was the best starting pont to understand it. Not suprisingly, many of the people I talked to in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Kosovo or Croatia, seemd to echo Kaplan's descriptions. I disagree with those who criticize his bias, for overstating the obvious: It is a very subjective book, but it's impossible to come out of the Balkans with an objective impression (perhaps its only sin is to downplay testimonies from Serbian people). The hatred, specially in the former Yugoslavia, is indeed ancient, not just modern inventions to justify a war, and precisely because they are ancient, they remain strong and unwilling to surrender to dialogue and understanding, and that is exactly what gives value to Kaplan's book: it is able to decode the moods in the Balkans.
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