A Balkan Summer

A Balkan Summer PDF

Author: George East

Publisher: La Puce

Published: 2017-07-08

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 9781908747563

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High summer in the Balkans and George East arrives in Bulgaria to investigate an apparently potty scheme to rescue a dying mountain village. While there, the eccentric travel writer gets to know an array of fascinating locals from the President Putin lookalike and Meerkat soundalike to Mr Rotavator and the man who takes his milk direct from cows. Beyond the village, George discovers much about the little-known country that Bill Bryson described as a 'near-death experience.' The book also contains historical and cultural notes and traditional recipes. In his time in Bulgaria, George finds himself falling under the spell of an ancient kingdom and its people... A Note from the publishers: George is at his best when confronted with new surroundings and Bulgaria and the Balkans caused this torrent of enthusiasm for a country untouched by commerciality and modern falseness. Though the people are poor beyond anything that the west can imagine, they welcomed him with very open arms.

Balkan Border Crossings

Balkan Border Crossings PDF

Author: Vasilēs G. Nitsiakos

Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 363

ISBN-13: 3643800924

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This volume is the second Annual of the Konitsa Summer School in Anthropology, Ethnography and Comparative Folklore of the Balkans containing the proceedings of two years, 2007 and 2008. It includes papers written by members of the teaching staff, papers delivered as lectures or especially prepared for the Annual, papers written by students based principally on their fieldwork exercise in Greece and Albania, presentations of ongoing PhD theses and, finally, the syllabi of the subjects of instruction.

Balkan Border Crossings

Balkan Border Crossings PDF

Author: Vassilis Nitsiakos

Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 3643904304

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This book is the third publication of the Konitsa Summer School in Anthropology, Ethnography, and Comparative Folklore of the Balkans, containing the proceedings of the years 2009 and 2010. It includes papers written by members of the teaching staff, papers delivered as lectures or especially prepared for the book, papers written by students based principally on their fieldwork exercises in Greece and Albania, presentations of ongoing PhD theses, and, finally, the syllabi of the subjects of instruction. Contents include: Varieties of Capitalism and Varieties of Economic Anthropology * Towards the Road: Urban Spacialities of Political Transition in Gjirokaster * Border Narratives: Testimonies of Albanian Immigrants in Greece * The Utopia of Dialogue in Intercultural Encounters * A Glocal Testament: The Case of the Rizarios Foundation * When Boundaries Define Memory * Dreaming the Privatized Skopje * Methodological Insights in Dance Anthropology: Embodying Indentities in Dance Celebrations in the Context of Metamorphosis of Sotiros in Sotira, South Albania * The Cambas Estate: The Polyphony of a "Vital" Space * The "Mykonos" of Albania: Touristic Development in the City of Saranda * How Many Meters Does It Take to Change a Country? Identity, Borders and Migration in a Greek Minority Village of Albania (Series: Balkan Border Crossings - Vol. 3)

Balkan Ghosts

Balkan Ghosts PDF

Author: Robert D. Kaplan

Publisher: Macmillan + ORM

Published: 2014-04-01

Total Pages: 437

ISBN-13: 1466868309

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From the assassination that triggered World War I to the ethnic warfare in Serbia, Bosnia, and Croatia, the Balkans have been the crucible of the twentieth century, the place where terrorism and genocide first became tools of policy. Chosen as one of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times, and greeted with critical acclaim as "the most insightful and timely work on the Balkans to date" (The Boston Globe), Kaplan's prescient, enthralling, and often chilling political travelogue is already a modern classic. This new edition of Balkan Ghosts includes six opinion pieces written by Robert Kaplan about the Balkans between 1996 and 2000 beginning just after the implementation of the Dayton Peace Accords and ending after the conclusion of the Kosovo war, with the removal of Slobodan Milosevic from power.

The Tiger's Wife

The Tiger's Wife PDF

Author: Téa Obreht

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2011-03-08

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 0679604367

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NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Spectacular . . . [Téa Obreht] spins a tale of such marvel and magic in a literary voice so enchanting that the mesmerized reader wants her never to stop.”—Entertainment Weekly Look for Téa Obreht’s second novel, Inland, now available. NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times • Entertainment Weekly • The Christian Science Monitor • The Kansas City Star • Library Journal Weaving a brilliant latticework of family legend, loss, and love, Téa Obreht, the youngest of The New Yorker’s twenty best American fiction writers under forty, has spun a timeless novel that will establish her as one of the most vibrant, original authors of her generation. In a Balkan country mending from war, Natalia, a young doctor, is compelled to unravel the mysterious circumstances surrounding her beloved grandfather’s recent death. Searching for clues, she turns to his worn copy of The Jungle Book and the stories he told her of his encounters over the years with “the deathless man.” But most extraordinary of all is the story her grandfather never told her—the legend of the tiger’s wife. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Wall Street Journal • O: The Oprah Magazine • The Economist • Vogue • Slate • Chicago Tribune • The Seattle Times • Dayton Daily News • Publishers Weekly • Alan Cheuse, NPR’s All Things Considered “Stunning . . . a richly textured and searing novel.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times “[Obreht] has a talent for subtle plotting that eludes most writers twice her age, and her descriptive powers suggest a kind of channeled genius. . . . No novel [this year] has been more satisfying.”—The Wall Street Journal “Filled with astonishing immediacy and presence, fleshed out with detail that seems firsthand, The Tiger’s Wife is all the more remarkable for being the product not of observation but of imagination.”—The New York Times Book Review “That The Tiger’s Wife never slips entirely into magical realism is part of its magic. . . . Its graceful commingling of contemporary realism and village legend seems even more absorbing.”—The Washington Post

A Balkan Freebooter

A Balkan Freebooter PDF

Author: Jan Gordon

Publisher: Cosimo, Inc.

Published: 2008-01-01

Total Pages: 342

ISBN-13: 1605201006

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Written in 1916, A Balkan Freebooter is the sequel to the collaborative project The Luck of Thirteen, which American author and artist JAN GORDON (1884-1944) wrote with his wife, Core Josephine Gordon, about their adventures in Serbia. This is the transcription of a story told to Jan by Petko Moritch, a pseudonym used to protect Jan's acquaintance. Petko was something of Robin Hood in Serbia, falsely charged with murder for having punched an Austrian the day before Austrians came to power. Petko escaped prison and continued to escape each time was captured. He stole from the rich and gave to those who helped him, always eluding capture. A BALKAN FREEBOOTER provides readers with both harrowing adventure and an accurate depiction of the people of Serbia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Balkan Fascination

Balkan Fascination PDF

Author: Mirjana Lausevic

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2015-10

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13: 0190269421

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Divi Zheni identifies itself as a Bulgarian women's chorus and band, but it is located in Boston and none of its members come from Bulgaria. Zlatne Uste is one of the most popular purveyors of Balkan music in America, yet the name of the band is grammatically incorrect. The members of Sviraci hail from western Massachusetts, upstate New York, and southern Vermont, but play tamburica music on traditional instruments. Curiously, thousands of Americans not only participate in traditional music and dance from the Balkans, but in fact structure their social practices around it without having any other ties to the region. In Balkan Fascination, ethnomusicologist Mirjana Lausevic, a native of the Balkans, investigates this remarkable phenomenon to explore why so many Americans actively participate in specific Balkan cultural practices to which they have no familial or ethnic connection. Going beyond traditional interpretations, she challenges the notion that participation in Balkan culture in North America is merely a specialized offshoot of the 1960s American folk music scene. Instead, her exploration of the relationship between the stark sounds and lively dances of the Balkan region and the Americans who love them reveals that Balkan dance and music has much deeper roots in America's ideas about itself, its place in the world, and the place of the world's cultures in the American melting pot. Examining sources that span more than a century and come from both sides of the Atlantic, Lausevic shows that an affinity group's debt to historical movements and ideas, though largely unknown to its members, is vital in understanding how and why people make particular music and dance choices that substantially change their lives.

Everyday Life in the Balkans

Everyday Life in the Balkans PDF

Author: David W. Montgomery

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2018-11-26

Total Pages: 422

ISBN-13: 0253038197

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Everyday Life in the Balkans gathers the work of leading scholars across disciplines to provide a broad overview of the countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Turkey. This region has long been characterized as a place of instability and political turmoil, from World War I, through the Yugoslav Wars, and even today as debate continues over issues such as the influx of refugees or the expansion of the European Union. However, the work gathered here moves beyond the images of war and post-socialist stagnation which dominate Western media coverage of the region to instead focus on the lived experiences of the people in these countries. Contributors consider a wide range of issues including family dynamics, gay rights, war memory, religion, cinema, fashion, and politics. Using clear language and engaging examples, Everyday Life in the Balkans provides the background context necessary for an enlightened conversation about the policies, economics, and culture of the region.