One morning in Sarajevo

[Funebrero]

I'm fairly new to the forum, I'm certainly no expert on WW1 but I do read a lot of books on it and I thought I'd do some reviews on books I've read in the last year.

One Morning in Sarajevo - David James Smith

I enjoyed this book although at times I found the narrative a little slow and found myself drifting occasionally in the first 100 pages. Its unfortunate but somehow having lots of long Slavic names can be difficult to follow (fortunately there is a Dramatis personæ before the introduction).

As the title suggests, the book deals with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the backgrounds of the men involved, the trial and the aftermath.

If the first part was slightly stodgy, it then flows much better and becomes very readable. There are plenty of interesting nuggets though at times I found myself prompted to ask questions that weren't answered in the text.

I haven't read any other books that deal solely with the assassination to compare it to, but I would recommend this book. It is unlikely to appear in any lists of best/favourite books on WW1 but it is I think worth a read.

[Kate Wills]

Welcome to the Forum Funebrero.

You may be interested to read a previous review

[Funebrero]

Thanks for the link, a much more in-depth review than mine!

I had looked for the book in this forum without finding it, from now on I will use the search function and then add my reviews to existing topics, that way avoiding unnecessary extra threads and allowing users to compare reviews.