In March 1945, at the end of the Second World War, hundreds of unarmed Albanian recruits were massacred by Yugoslav partisans. For too long, the memory of this massacre in Tivari – a coastal town in Montenegro – has been suppressed by the Yugoslav state and kept alive in Kosovo only in informal versions, nurtured and retold in a spirit of ethnic mistrust and hatred. Depicted in graphic format, The Long Winter of 1945 presents an oral history of this traumatic event based on interviews with surviving participants. Archival documents and historical research provide context, placing the massacre in the broader setting of forced mass mobilization to fight, as well as the last pocket of Italian resistance. The book reveals that the massacre was not a forgettable incident of history, as the censored or sanitized official narrative of Yugoslav history would like it to be remembered, nor was it a planned act of genocide, as described by informal oral versions, repeated with undertones of fear and anger, and passed along as underground collective memory. The Long Winter of 1945 places its history into the broader context of Yugoslavia’s war for liberation and the civil war between Serbs and Albanians. Bringing this traumatic event to the fore, this beautifully illustrated graphic novel rescues the memory of the victims and survivors from political exploitation.

The Battle of Kosovo of 1389 holds enormous significance in the formation of modern Balkan nation states, especially among South Slav and Serbian nationalist circles. What has given this single battle such resonance, even more than six centuries later, and what does it reveal about the complex tangle of identity in the contemporary Balkans?

Robert Elsie's beautiful new translation brings a little-known Albanian epic account of the battle between the Ottoman Sultan Murat I and a coalition of Balkan forces brilliantly to life. The fantastic tale of Murat's campaign in Kosovo and his assassination by the Albanian knight Millosh Kopiliq is more often presented from the Serb perspective, which extols particularly the valour of the Serbian knight Milos Obilic. By proposing an alternative narrative, "The Battle of Kosovo" offers a more nuanced understanding of this powerful myth of nationalism and belonging. Anna Di Lellio's sensitive commentary explores the significance of this epic poem and of the battle more generally in post-war Kosovo in reinforcing a collective identity that emphasises resistance against foreign oppression and identifies strongly with a European, predominantly Christian culture. "The Battle of Kosovo" is an important addition to our understanding of the past, present and future of this complex Balkan nation as well as the broader issues of national memory and identity.

This book makes the case for the independence of Kosova the former province of old-Yugoslavia' and now temporarily a United Nations-led International protectorate at a time in which international diplomacy is deeply involved in solving the contested issue of its 'Final Status'. Negotiations began in January 2006 under the auspices of a United Nations Special Envoy, and have been given renewed impetus by the international community's determination to arrive at a solution. The Case for Kosova aims to contribute to these negotiations, by providing informed arguments for a different approach to the issue of Kosova's status beyond the limitations of current debates. Its aim is to counteract the anti-Albanian propaganda waged by some parties, but never to propose a counter-propaganda hostile to others or to the goals of a democratic Kosova. Debates on Kosova have largely concentrated on a specific aspect of the issue: either on ideology and myth construction (ignoring translations into practice); on geo-politics (missing the deep implications for stability and security); or on policy (lacking a conceptual understanding of both ideologies and processes). Until now, no book has linked these different fields in a persuasive manner. The Case for Kosova fills this gap with an intellectually challenging and politically relevant commentary from key players in the debate.