Infidelities

As Serb, Croat, and Bosnian Muslim armies clash in the cities and countryside of the former Yugoslavia, it's impossible to delineate the home front from the front lines. A Buddhist soldier in the Bosnian Muslim military is falsely accused of being an enemy informer after his detachment ambushes itself in "Hail." A draft dodger is in the hospital for a transplant in "A Purple Heart," when a Croatian general steals the heart for himself. In "Ribs," a Croatian widow goes to desperate lengths to keep her son out of the army.

The stories in Infidelities cover a broad sweep of time, from the first shots of World War I fired in Sarajevo to the plight of Balkan immigrants in contemporary America. In "Spleen," a Bosnian émigrécannot find release from the haunting memories of her homeland. Throughout, acts of compassion, dark humor, and even desire arise from a landscape devastated by tragedy.