Only the Nails Remain: Scenes from the Balkan Wars is a chronicle of
poet and critic Christopher Merrill's ten war-time journeys to the
Balkans from the years 1992 through 1996. At once a travelogue, a book
of war reportage, and a biography of the imagination under siege, this
beautifully written and personal narrative takes the reader along on the
author's journeys to all the provinces and republics of the former
Yugoslavia-Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro,
Serbia, Slovenia, and Vojvodina-as well as to Albania, Austria,
Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Italy, and Turkey. His journeys provide the
narrative structure for an exploration of the roles and responsibility
of intellectuals caught up in a decisive historical moment, many of whom
either helped to incite the war or else bore eloquent witness to its
carnage. What separates this book-the first non-native literary work on
the conflict-from other collections of reportage, political analysis,
and polemic, is its concern for capturing the texture of particular
places in the midst of dramatic change-the sounds and sights and smells,
the stories and observations of victim and perpetrator alike, the
culture of war. Here is a literary meditation on war, a fascinating
portrait of the poetry, politics and the people of the Balkans that will
provide insight into the past, present, and future of those war-torn
lands. Hear an interview with the author on NPR's Weekend All Things
Considered, February 20th, 'Balkan Poets.'
