In this brilliant book, Roger Cohen of The New York Times takes us to the core of one of the twentieth century's most complex stories, weaving together the history of Yugoslavia and the story of the Bosnian War of 1992 to 1995, as experienced by four families.          "I have tried to treat the story of Yugoslavia, which lived for seventy-three years, as a human one," Cohen writes in this masterly book, which, like Thomas Friedman's From Beirut to Jerusalem and David Remnick's Lenin's Tomb, makes us eyewitnesses at the center of historic events. In the aftermath of the Cold War, the Bosnian conflict shattered the West's confidence, reviving Europe's darkest ghosts and exposing an America reluctant to confront or acknowledge an act of genocide on European soil. Through Cohen's compelling reconstruction of the twentieth-century history that led up to the war, and his account of the war's effect on everyday lives, we at last find the key to understanding Europe's most explosive region and its peoples.          "This was a war of intimate betrayals," Cohen goes on to say, and in Hearts Grown Brutal, the betrayals begin in the family of a man named Sead. Through his search for his lost father, we relive the history of Yugoslavia, founded at the end of World War I with the encouragement of President Woodrow Wilson. Sead's desperate quest is punctuated by the lies, half truths, and pain that mark other sagas of Yugoslavia. Through three more families--one Muslim-Serb, one Muslim, and one Serb-Croat--we experience the war in Bosnia as it breaks up marriages and sets relative against relative. The reality of the Balkans is illuminated, even as the hypocrisy of the international response to the war is exposed.          Hearts Grown Brutalis a remarkable book, a testament to the loss of a multi-ethnic European state and a warning that the violence could return. It is a magnificent achievement that blends history and journalism into a profoundly moving human story. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Cohen admits that his experience covering the Bosnian War for the New York Times changed him. He counts himself fortunate not to have been destroyed, like the estimated 200,000 dead or the living whose lives were deranged by the war's terror. This is a long book, thick with metaphor that struggles to describe the unspeakable. The ethnic mistrust reignited by Slobodan Milosevic had been buried in Bosnia generations ago. Through four "typical" families, whose personal histories form part of Bosnia's own, Cohen shows how Serb, Muslim, Croat and Jew had become so inextricably linked that their identity could be nothing other than Bosnian Yugoslav. Serb fanaticism not only estranged neighbors but broke the bonds between families and even between husbands and wives. NATO nations, with massive strength poised against potential Soviet threats to the Balkans, became impotent and flagrantly manipulated by an ambiguous enemy. Cohen's indignant questions reverberate‘What stripped the West of moral courage just 40 years after the Holocaust? What compelled the U.N. to insist on a fantastic and suicidal impartiality in the face of atrocity? What allows mass psychosis to grip an entire nation? With the foundations of democracy safely inherited, do we abjure courage and responsibility, to pursue consumer comforts whatever the spiritual cost? His conclusions are not auspicious. Bosnia epitomized a triumph of tolerance; in its loss, he doubts our capacity to achieve it again. Editor, Kate Medina; agent, Amanda Urban, ICM. (Sept.) From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

New York Times reporter Cohen offers a moving interpretation of the Bosnian war that takes readers through an array of tragic situations. A son pursues his dying Muslim father, a wartime SS officer, in Turkey; a mother, having lost her family to a Serb concentration camp, falls before a sniper under the sudden glare of a UN searchlight; refugees languishing amidst "ethnically cleansed" urban rubble give proof to the "hole in the heart of the monstrous Serbian project." Cohen nevertheless recalls "provocations" against Serb communities on the part of Croatian and Bosnian presidents. He is especially critical of Washington's "willful ignorance" of Serb aggression and the "covert inaction" allowing Croatia to avoid the arms embargo. This remarkable book depicts the broad panorama of the war through the area's history and the hapless destiny of those in its midst, making this at least equal to such works as Brian Hall's The Impossible Country (LJ 7/94) and Peter Maass's Love Thy Neighbor (LJ 3/15/96). Among the best journalism of the war, it is highly recommended for all libraries.ÄZachary T. Irwin, Pennsylvania State Univ., Erie From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Over the past few years a great many books have been published about the war in Bosnia. Aside from its considerable length, this well-written account distinguishes itself by its seamless blend of substantial historical background, eyewitness accounts, and the personal histories of four families caught up in the unfolding tragedy. The 20th-century background is unusually accurate and perceptive for this genre. Less exceptional is the book's devastating indictment of the horrendous atrocities, committed principally by Serb forces, and of the endless array of Western leaders who found innumerable excuses for staying on the sidelines. Most of the author's material comes from Bosnian Muslim survivors, partly because of his greater proximity to government sources, but also because his Serbian sources seemed more interested in denying the mountain of evidence against them than in helping him mine it for detail and nuance. The family histories are less compelling and, sometimes, less well integrated with the rest of the book. Although the book includes an index and a handy, prefatory chronology, its sometimes asymmetrical chronology may confound readers. All levels. C. Ingrao; Purdue University From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.