We have updated our Privacy Policy Please take a moment to review it. By continuing to use this site, you agree to the terms of our updated Privacy Policy.

The People We Were Before

Paperback / ISBN-13: 9781784299507

Price: £9.99

Disclosure: If you buy products using the retailer buttons above, we may earn a commission from the retailers you visit.


If war is madness, how can love survive?

Yugoslavia, summer 1979. A new village. A new life. But eight-year-old Miro knows the real reason why his family moved from the inland city of Knin to the sunkissed village of Ljeta on the Dalmatian Coast, a tragedy he tries desperately to forget.

The Ljeta years are happy ones, though, and when he marries his childhood sweetheart, and they have a baby daughter, it seems as though life is perfect. However, storm clouds are gathering above Yugoslavia.

War breaks out, and one split-second decision destroys the life Miro has managed to build. Driven by anger and grief, he flees to Dubrovnik, plunging himself into the hard-bitten world of international war reporters.

There begins a journey that will take him ever deeper into danger: from Dubrovnik, to Sarajevo, to the worst atrocities of war-torn Bosnia, Miro realises that even if he survives, there can be no way back to his earlier life. The war will change him, and everyone he loves, forever.

What's Inside

Read More Read Less

Reviews

Tender, truthful, moving and at times painful
Sunday Mirror
I loved the way the author merges the compelling personal stories of this family against the dramatic background of the troubles of Yugoslavia in the 1980s. Miro is strong but flawed - an utterly realistic character - and when he is flung into the war his life is changed forever. How he copes with what he witnesses; with loss, disillusion and guilt, makes for a fascinating story which is told with integrity and authenticity
Rosanna Ley, author of The Villa and Bay of Secrets
A rattlingly good read, pacily plotted and ambitious in scope
Wendy Holden, Daily Mail
An important chronicle of one of the most disgraceful conflicts of the late 20th century . . . and quite apart from the history lesson, it's a fascinating read
Irish Independent on Sunday
Thorpe's moving, powerful tale examines how easy it is for us to lose humanity in the face of evil
Daily Express