Category: Books

By: Pandora Petrovska (author of Children of the Bird Goddess)

Tpb: 113 pgs, 28 Photos and Documents

Price $21 CAD      USD$15

This is a love story about Stefo and Lena from the Macedonian village of Trna in Aegean Macedonia.  But it could be anyone’s story who lived through those times.  Married during the early days of WWII, Stefo is conscripted into the Greek army, and later becomes a partisan.  This is a family torn apart through no fault of their own, and how they manage to put the pieces together.  It is a powerful oral history about war, migration, Macedonian village life in the early mid 20thC and the importance of family.  It is well told and easy to read.

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By:  Scott Taylor

Tpb:  208 pgs.

Price $15 CAD/USD

In June 1999, NATO troops were hailed as the “liberation of Kosovo”.  Western media promptly packed it up and headed home from the Balkans.  The declaration of victory was naïve and premature given the Alliance’s stated objectives of deposing Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, and creating a safe, multi-ethnic environment in Kosovo.  Rather than ending the civil strife, NATO’s intervention set in motion a series of events which would have violent repercussions through Serbia, Kosovo and especially Macedonia, over the next two years.

This is Taylor’s first-hand observations and interviews with the people and the players and a very personal account of the war, and its aftermath in Serbia and Macedonia.

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By:  Scott Taylor © 2010

Tpb: 176 pgs.

Price: $18 CAD/USD

During the past century, there have been two major clashes in the Anatolia-Caucasus region.  Both resulted in the widespread slaughter and forced expulsion of innocent civilianz from all sides.  The first was during the Great War (WWI) caused by the collapse of both the Ottoman Empire and Czarist Russia:  the second erupted between 1988-1994.  What these two conflicts also share is that few in the West have observed, chronicled or been able to fully understand the complexity of the situation.  Thos existing accounts are rife with partisan propaganda.  It is important to peel away the rhetoric and get to the core.

Scott Taylor has written about the Macedonian region, and now gives the same attention to this region.  There are always two and even three sides to every conflict, and this book gives the reader a better understanding of what happened.  Many of the Begaltsi were shipped to Azerbaijan, and this comprehensive history is useful to understand this region.  Taylor wrote Diary of an Uncivil War, which gives you a view of what happened to Macedonia during the Kosovo conflict.  It is amazing that many of the events parallel what happened in Macedonia and the region in some ways.

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By:  Kathy Dimitrievski, Ph.D.

300 pages © 2003           

Large format trade paperback  (incl. photos)

Price: $28 CAD             USD  $21

Like many cultures, oral history plays an important and vital role in Macedonia.  In the past, they did not have the opportunity to write their own history, and create a literary tradition.  Songs and poetry, which were easy to remember, expressed the joys and sorrows of their existence, current events, the passing of famous and ordinary people, laughter and local customs.  People passed on songs in full voice in the fields, or whispered melodies as men and women gathered around the fire at night.

Dimitrievski’s research includes the diaspora of Canada, the United States, Pirin (Bulgaria) and Mala Prespa (Albania).  The interviewees from Aegean Macedonia were interviewed in the diaspora and Bitola, Macedonia.  The many interviews and stories told, along with the words to the songs, provide a very interesting view of Macedonian history.  Dr. Dimitrievski included exclusive interviews with folk singers Sarievski, Tomovska, Kostadinova and Ilieva, along with a comprehensive analysis of Macedonian folk songs.

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