"Total Balkan" by Blanka Chekhova, a book about people who live in Kosovo and foreigners who are there not because of Kosovo but because of a plus in their career and a good salary
Blanka Chekhova is a Czech, a lawyer, she worked at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, from where she went to Kosovo and Metohija as a member of a civilian mission to see what was being discussed at her workplace.
And then in 2011, she published the book "Total Balkan" about it, which, of all other countries, could (should) be of interest to readers in Serbia. And yet, it was translated (Zoran Dukić) and published ("Clio") only in 2020. Unfortunately, it has not lost its relevance.
"Total Balkan" is written in the form of a diary, but it is not the author's. Blanka Chekhova says that she only used real events and turned them into fiction about the people living in Kosovo and the foreigners who were sent there to make their lives easier.
Whatever, because every word she says is believed, perhaps because, unlike most of her readers, she was in Kosovo, lived and socialized with the people there, so she knows how it is for them, and from the way she writes about it all, it seems that she is not hiding anything or relieves. Because if it is allowed to write about colleagues what is not normally written, that they came to Kosovo not because of Kosovo, but because of a bonus in their career and a good salary, as well as that the rule "don't be on the side of either the Serbs or the Albanians" means "you care for one and the other", then you can trust her for the rest as well.
Especially since it was precisely because of this attitude of the peacemakers that Blanka Chekhov resigned from the comforts and privileges of Strasbourg, but thanks to her project, which included the opening of schools, she stayed in Kosovo.
Why did she stay? The answer is at the beginning of the book, when the main character (who is of course impossible to identify with the author) enters Kosovska Mitrovica, breathes that air, and realizes that this is what she wants.
Does she/her heroine support Serbs or Albanians? He cheers for coexistence, which was given to them by fate. It does not favor anyone, and therefore if anyone expected a pro-Serbian or pro-Albanian book from "Total Balkan", do not read it. There are normal people in it who do not want conflict because they have no reason for it.
What does he propose as a solution to the Kosovo problem? Nothing, just listing the possibilities that are on the table. Why was there no division - that the northern part of Kosovo, where the majority of Serbs live, belongs to Serbia, why was the division not made across the Ibar River? There were other proposals. She has a thousand whys and whats behind it. It seems that Marti Ahtisaari's plan is not bad for her, she thinks that, maybe, if it were implemented properly, it wouldn't be bad, and that on both sides, but...
And that's why, apart from today's Kosovo, "Total Balkan" is also a book about good plans that can go wrong because of people who don't care about Kosovo, Serbs and Albanians, peace...
On the day of the unilateral declaration of Kosovo's independence on February 17, 2008, her heroine is on the plane to London "above everything", but with the awareness that the international community has violated international law. Below her are the people she cares about.
In addition to believability, "Total Balkan" also has humor, which is called "Czech humor" by Karel Čapek, and it is there more as an ingredient of the aforementioned believability than for the sake of humor.
All that together, regardless of the unpleasant topic, gives us pleasure. I don't even need to point out the opportunity to find out a lot of things that are inaccessible to an ordinary person.
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