Bøger af Slavenka Drakulic

"Drakulić’s composite portrait provides a clear-eyed look at European values, and what they really amount to." —The New YorkerAn evocative and timely collection of essays that paints a portrait of Eastern Europe thirty years after the end of communism.An immigrant with a parrot in Stockholm, a photo of a girl in Lviv, a sculpture of Alexander the Great in Skopje, a memorial ceremony for the 50th anniversary of the Soviet led army invasion of Prague: these are a few glimpses of life in Eastern Europe today. Three decades after the Velvet Revolution, Slavenka Drakulic, the author of Cafe Europa and A Guided Tour of the Museum Of Communism, takes a look at what has changed and what has remained the same in the region in her daring new essay collection. Totalitarianism did not die overnight and democracy did not completely transform Eastern European societies. Looking closely at artefacts and day to day life, from the health insurance cards to national monuments, and popular films to cultural habits, alongside pieces of growing nationalism and Brexit, these pieces of political reportage dive into the reality of a Europe still deeply divided.

"Slavenka Drakulic is a journalist and writer whose voice belongs to the world." -Gloria SteinemToday in Eastern Europe the architectural work of revolution is complete: the old order has been replaced by various forms of free market economy and de jure democracy. But as Slavenka Drakulic observes, "in everyday life, the revolution consists much more of the small things-of sounds, looks and images." In this brilliant work of political reportage, filtered through her own experience, we see that Europe remains a divided continent. In the place of the fallen Berlin Wall there is a chasm between East and West, consisting of the different way people continue to live and understand the world. Little bits-or intimations-of the West are gradually making their way east: boutiques carrying Levis and tiny food shops called "Supermarket" are multiplying on main boulevards. Despite the fact that Drakulic can find a Cafe Europa, complete with Viennese-style coffee and Western decor, in just about every Eastern European city, the acceptance of the East by the rest of Europe continues to prove much more elusive.

This work explores the divisions that still exist in contemporary Europe. It focuses on Eastern Europe and the attitudes and cultural identity of Eastern Europeans, a nation of people still living in the past. Budapest, Tirane, Warsaw and Zagreb are featured.

Slavenka Drakulic attended the Serbian war crimes trial in the Hague. This important book is about how ordinary people commit terrible crimes in wartime. With extraordinary story-telling skill Drakulic draws us in to this difficult subject. We cannot turn away from her subject matter because her writing is so engaging, lively and compelling. From the monstrous Slobodan Milosevich and his evil Lady Macbeth of a wife to humble Serb soldiers who claim they were 'just obeying orders', Drakulic brilliantly enters the minds of the killers. There are also great stories of bravery and survival, both from those who helped Bosnians escape from the Serbs and from those who risked their lives to help them.

På et hospital i Stockholm mindes en ung kroatisk lærerinde sine oplevelser under de etniske udryddelser i begyndelsen af 1990-erne, hvor hun blev interneret i en fangelejr og udsat for systematisk voldtægt og voldelige ydmygelser. Romanen maler rædslerne under krigen i eks-Juguslavien. En meget overvældende og væsentlig roman om kvinders skæbne og rolle i krig.Denne bog skal ikke læses fordi den er rar at læse. På trods af det dystre emne er bogen alligevel en rigtig god læseoplevelse. - LitteratursidenSommeren 1992 hørte jeg om massevoldtægterne af bosniske kvinder og kunne ikke tro, det var sandt. I alle krige bliver kvinder voldtaget , men voldtægt som del af en systematisk plan om ’etnisk udrensning’ forekom for kalkuleret og for grusom...Jeg ville finde ord til de ofre, som ikke kunne andet end forfalde til tavshed. Jeg ville give deres stumhed en stemme. - Slavenka Drakulic