The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo
by Paula Huntley

FROM PAULA HUNTLEY

February 18, 2008

Kosova is now an independent nation!

I am so happy for all my Kosovar friends who have waited so long - and suffered so much - for this day.

I am also very anxious about them, about this new, free Kosova. There will be so many frustrations, mistakes, fears ahead. The road ahead of them is a very, very long one, and there are many roadblocks in the way, principally those placed there by Serbia and Russia. But there may be roadblocks placed by Kosovar Albanians themselves, a result of their fears, their memories, their prejudices. Understandable.

But my hope is that all the ethnicities in Kosova can find a way to live together in peace, in harmony. That the new government of Kosova can make sure that the rights of Serbs and other minorities within its borders are respected. And that all nations, including Serbia and Russia, will ultimately recognize Kosova.

I am also worried about Serbia. My hope is that Serbia will realize they lost Kosova long ago, during the 90's, and especially during the ethnic cleansing of 1998 and 1999. In reality Kosova has not been a part of Serbia for a long, long time.

I hope Serbia will realize this, will accept it, and will move on to focus on their own economic development, on their own welfare. The people of Serbia deserve a government that can take them forward into a peaceful, prosperous future. They deserve a government that is able to put the past behind them.

I thank you for visiting my website. Here you'll get information about my "accidental" book, The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo, and will see photographs of some of the wonderful Kosovars my husband, Ed Villmoare, and I met when we lived in Kosova, as volunteers, after the war.

For updates on how some of my students are doing today, go to the page, "Students Now".

For reviews of my book, go to "Praise for The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo".

If you would like to order books, I encourage you to go to your local independent bookstore. The American Association of Independent Booksellers has supported my book, and many of its booksellers personally recommend the book to their customers. I am grateful for that support.

Since my book was first published I've had the opportunity to meet fellow Americans from all over our country. The generosity I've encountered everywhere has amazed and inspired me. Donations have poured in to support the education of young Kosovars, including many of my students. Church groups have traveled to Kosovo and other developing nations to help rebuild villages and lives. Americans young and old have joined the Peace Corps and other international volunteer organizations. And families have opened their homes to Kosovar exchange students.

This generous response has meant far more to me than the book sales and good reviews. From the bottom of my heart I thank everyone who has responded in this way.

Today Kosova is still in transition. Each time I return to Kosova some of my former students delight in showing me the rebuilt homes and businesses, the new statue of Skanderbej on Mother Theresa Boulevard, the campus of the American University of Kosova.

But Kosovo is still ravaged by poverty, unemployment, crime and corruption. Ethnic hostility, although diminished, is a continuing problem. The tragic riots, killings and destruction of Serb property in March, 2004, were a vivid demonstration of this tumor threatening Kosova's society.

Kosova's hope lies in its remarkable people, who are, without doubt, its greatest natural resource. Surely Kosovars will show the political and social maturity to protect the rights of all minorities, including, of course, those Serbs who also call Kosova home.

The peace and prosperity of this newest of the world's nations depends upon this tolerance and political maturity.

It is my hope that The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo can play some role, even if small, in introducing Americans to the remarkable people of this new nation.

And, as I said in the introduction to my book, "It is also my hope that more of us Americans will become involved with the rest of the world. We need to learn about other people, learn what they think of us, try to understand, even if we don't agree with, their points of view. Everywhere in the world, I believe, from our own backyards to the middle of the Balkans, there exist people whose needs, and whose generous responsive hearts, offer even the most ordinary Americans, like me, the opportunity to serve, to connect, to expand our capacity for love."

Thank you for visiting my website, and for your interest in Kosova.

Paula Huntley



From the publisher:

In the spring of 1999 the world watched as 850,000 ethnic Albanians poured over the borders of Kosovo, bringing with them horrific stories of rape, massacre and ethnic cleansing. A year later, Paula Huntley's husband signed on with the American Bar Association to help build a modern legal system in the rubble of Kosovo, and she reluctantly agreed to leave their California home to accompany him. Not sure how she could be of any service in a country that had suffered so much, Huntley found a position teaching English as a second language to a group of Kosovo Albanians. In this extraordinary journal -- all the more powerful because it was never intended to be published as a book - Huntley describes in rich, compelling detail her own experiences in Kosovo, the lives of the young Kosovar students she came to know and love, and the remarkable book club they created together.

FROM THE CRITICS

"[Huntley's] memoir is poignant, thoughtful, and humble -- and exactly the kind of story Americans need to hear right now."
Brad Newsham, The San Francisco Chronicle

"Gripping, heartbreaking reading . . . .The interweaving of Hemingway's story, the students' narratives of terror and Huntley's own tales of discovery make for a book that is stirring and nearly impossible to put down."
Lev Raphael, Ft. Worth Star Telegram

"Paula Huntley's surprisingly affecting memoir arrives at an opportune moment; it reminds us
not merely that Kosovo exists but also of the importance of that Bush-Rovian bogeyman, nation-building . . . Nation-building requires not merely, not even primarily the commitment of government resources; it also requires brave ordinary Americans like Paula Huntley -- and one hopes, like some of her readers, who will perhaps be inspired by her stories -- to leave the comforts of home and see the world unmediated through television cameras or journalists' eyes."
Jon Fasman, The Washington Post Book World

"This unpretentious record is an all too rare thing --a memoir of the heart about a forsaken part of the world that blazed into headlines, grabbed its bloody fifteen minutes of fame, and then promptly fell off the West's radar screen once again . . . Huntley offers no solutions, no analysis. But what does light this book is her persistent faith in the power of connectedness, of nurturing the human spirit, of the obligations that we, as human beings, have to one another."
Sara Terry, Hope Magazine

"Although she never intended for her journal to be published, its beautiful, soul-searching passages deserve to be embraced by the world."
Booklist

"[Huntley] has ensured that anyone who reads her book will truly know and remember this forsaken Balkan land."
Daphne Uviller, Newsday

"This moving, painful and ultimately uplifting memoir began as a series of e-mails to friends at home, and the entries retain the casual, heartfelt wisdom of someone writing off the top of her head. Huntley is all the things a reader would want in a guide to a foreign land: at times, angry, at times frustrated with politics, at times funny, but always homing in on the most telling, human experiences."
Jill Wolfson, San Jose Mercury News

"This heartbreaking but uplifting book holds out hope, as it presents a clear-eyed landscape of horrors."
Providence Journal

"[The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo] is an emotional tribute, a love affair with a people. Huntley's ability to examine her own ignorance, doubts and failings is admirable, and her perception of the Kosovars' current challenges as they strive toward recovery and independence is astute. Despite the painful subject, her writing offers pure enjoyment in its elegance and depth."
Pacific Sun

[Huntley's journal] is a glowing testament to why people in far-off countries about which we know little, and too often care even less, still admire, respect, and even love Americans."
Micahel Kenney, Boston Globe