The Fracture Zone

A Return to the Balkans

By: Simon Winchester

Narrated by: Steven Crossley

Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Award-winning journalist and author Simon Winchester takes readers on a personal tour of the Balkans. Combining history and interviews with the people who live there, Winchester offers a fascinating glimpse into the complex issues at work in this chaotic region. Unrest in the Balkans has gone on for centuries. A seasoned reporter, Winchester visited the region twenty years ago. When Kosovo reached crisis level in 1997, Winchester thought a return visit to the beleaguered area would help to make sense out of the awful violence. He decided to use Vienna and Istanbul, two great cities whose rivalries helped create the dynamics at work today, as the beginning and end points of his trip. Not specifically a book about war, it is more a portrait of a place and its people in turmoil. Simon Winchester offers an insightful look at a little understood conflict. Steven Crossley’s masterful narration will make listeners feel as if they have entered the combat zone.

©1999 Simon Winchester (P)2001 Recorded Books, LLC

Almost good

The narration was exceptionally good.
The writing was good but it conveyed the Eurocentric and racist instincts of the author. There is plenty of poverty and squalor in Europe; one needs to look around without biases.

There was no mention of Macedonia or Herzegovina. Aren't they Balkan states as well?

It is more like a diary

Description stated: combining history with interviews. Well. It is more like combining a diary with interviews and some snippets of history. I just finished an 3,5hr audiobook about the Balkan. A whole lot more history than this 8,5 hour fancy talk.

Simon Winchester at his finest, again!

Different topic for him but still done in his usual, well researched style. Great history of the Balkans and how history keeps repeating itself.

Another winner from Mr. Winchester!

Simon Winchester explores the history of the Balkans, and provides a credible account as to why this is, and has been, such a fractured part of the world. This is a title I will gladly read again.

Loved this-Great combo:Story and History Explained

Would you listen to The Fracture Zone again? Why?

Probably not as I don't typically listen to books like this again, but it was very interesting and informative.

What did you like best about this story?

Was looking for an audio book that gave me a framework of the issues in the Balkans and this does so within the structure of an interesting and entertaining story so wasn't as dry as a history text.

Which scene was your favorite?

My favorite was actually how he sprinkled in the historical background within the scenes, so you learned while you were entertained.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

All of the unnecessary violence was upsetting but informative.

Any additional comments?

Was just really pleasantly surprised with this book. Figured I'd pick up on some history through an adventure travel type of story but really got both in a great way. Really happy with this book.

Early Simon Winchester

This book contains all the elements of his later works. Descriptive, memorable characters and an understanding of the geological forces that shape a landscape. By necessity this was written in the first person, so it becomes a kind of painful travelogue as the author describes horrific acts of barbarism and hatred that was occurring in the Balkans at that time. And, as with all his books, he is able to find and relate great beauty, humor and humanity amidst the tragedy. One can even understand his bewilderment over the fact that all of this was occurring in Europe at the end of the twentieth century while not necessarily sharing in the sentiment. While there are many other Simon Winchester books that I would recommend over this, for those of us who are deep fans of his writing, this is a good one to go back to. It gives one a greater sense of the author.

One of Many Fracture Zones

So many such zones of tumult exists. But when the daily news media has pushed the latest political fracture zone from its headlines to the the back pages and worse, books like Simon’s offer the thoughtful and inquisitive reader an in depth portrait of mankind’s festering political wounds.
An audible tape lacks the pictures of the geography, events and people involved, so using an online encyclopedia, like Wiki, helps greatly to “picture” the vast geography covered in this story. So the print and audible are easily combined.
Most of all I relished Simon’s characterizations of the humans caught in the matrix of The Fracture Zone. I am planning to listen to all his works.

wonderful

no struggling to finish and heard it twice
with new awareness. shared with friends east coast and west

Winchesters only boring work

The narrator may lend most of the pomp and slowness of the audiobook, but I suspect it would be somewhat boring in any format. It's more a stuffy travel memoir and less the captivating tale of how society and geography intertwine that mr.winchester is known for.


And the last chapter is accidentally truncated in this performance