In this volume ex-communist Gojko Beric reflects with irony on his ex-Yugoslav countrymen, noting the absurdities of ethnic conflict as well as its tragedies. Beric spent parts of the war away from Sarajevo, in Ljubljana, and used his absence to observe from abroad the pain of distance and the shock of return. He was one of a small number of chroniclers and commentators of that period and constant themes in the book are those of citizenship, belonging and the city. His work is about the dark, bloody, final decade of the 20th century in the former Yugoslavia. Just as nationalism is repugnant to him, so is intellectual conformism, and he seeks to avoid journalistic platitudes.