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About this book
This book tells the true story of a young girl growing up during the Kosovo war and its immediate aftermath following Kosovo's liberation by NATO troops in 1999. Through her embodied experiences, the book exposes the tangible and everyday acts and events of the war, providing brutal insight into the impact of war and the politics of subjugation.
At the outset of the book (in 1998), Vjosa's view of the world, as a young child, is organized in clear dichotomies: the good Albanians and the evil Serbs; the brutal Serbian military shelling Albanian civilians and the angelic NATO airplanes bombing Serbian military sites. This Manichean worldview starts to unravel after Vjosa and her family are chased away from their home by the Serbian military and moved to the suburbs. There, surrounded by mostly poor and uneducated fellow Albanians, she gradually discovers the layers of her family's socio-economic privileges. Though unequipped with the language to verbalize it, she is tormented by the idea that her family's comparatively higher socio-economic status is the reason why they are spared by the Serbian military.
When the war ends in 1999, and the NATO tanks fill the narrow streets of her hometown as Serbian military tanks leave, Vjosa believes she received her own 'happily ever after'. She celebrates her thirteenth birthday happily wearing a US military uniform, holding an unbearably heavy unloaded gun as she becomes the favorite interpreter of the American NATO troops. She spends several months after the war occasionally translating between angry Albanians who now seek revenge against Serbs and NATO troops who insist on not picking sides; showcasing the impossibility of (re)building Kosovo with "both-sides-ism" becoming the modus operandi of the international intervening structures.
At the outset of the book (in 1998), Vjosa's view of the world, as a young child, is organized in clear dichotomies: the good Albanians and the evil Serbs; the brutal Serbian military shelling Albanian civilians and the angelic NATO airplanes bombing Serbian military sites. This Manichean worldview starts to unravel after Vjosa and her family are chased away from their home by the Serbian military and moved to the suburbs. There, surrounded by mostly poor and uneducated fellow Albanians, she gradually discovers the layers of her family's socio-economic privileges. Though unequipped with the language to verbalize it, she is tormented by the idea that her family's comparatively higher socio-economic status is the reason why they are spared by the Serbian military.
When the war ends in 1999, and the NATO tanks fill the narrow streets of her hometown as Serbian military tanks leave, Vjosa believes she received her own 'happily ever after'. She celebrates her thirteenth birthday happily wearing a US military uniform, holding an unbearably heavy unloaded gun as she becomes the favorite interpreter of the American NATO troops. She spends several months after the war occasionally translating between angry Albanians who now seek revenge against Serbs and NATO troops who insist on not picking sides; showcasing the impossibility of (re)building Kosovo with "both-sides-ism" becoming the modus operandi of the international intervening structures.
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Yes, you can access Girlhood at War by Vjosa Musliu in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Politics & International Relations & European Politics. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Halftitle Page
- Title Page
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Saša, the Serbian Policeman
- 2 A Slap in the Face
- 3 We Are at War
- 4 The Night of the NATO Bombing
- 5 The Morning After
- 6 Hajde Da Ludujemo
- 7 The Crime
- 8 The Ladder, the Sniper and the Blue Jersey
- 9 I Can’t Breathe!
- 10 All Bread Is Sacred; All Lives Are Sacred
- 11 Of Guns and Bread
- 12 They Will Find Me at Home
- 13 Whatever We Can Buy. Whatever They Can Sell
- 14 Road Trip
- 15 To the End of the World
- 16 Long Hair Is Trouble
- 17 Someone Here Is Insane
- 18 The Basement
- 19 The Gift of Death
- 20 Politics of Friendship
- 21 Everyone Wants Out Sometimes
- 22 A Child’s Play
- 23 Happily Ever After
- 24 The Americans
- 25 Adulthood Comes with Responsibilities
- 26 Victims and Perpetrators
- 27 NATO Does Not Pull Out
- 28 Statues Fall, Statues Rise
- 29 Of Books and Rage
- 30 The Crime Scene
- 31 Kiss Dejan!
- 32 Little Red Riding Hood
- Epilogue
- Index
- About the Author
- Imprint