Through the Embers of Chaos: Balkan Journeys
'Dervla Murphy is a brave woman and a great travel writer' -- The Spectator  'A timely and important account of a catastrophically razed corner of Europe. Dervla Murphy wears her erudition lightly, weaving personal anecdote into enduring reportage. She talks to ordinary people trapped beneath the crust of former dictatorships, and is respectful of their past suffering.' -- Ian Thomson, Sunday Times 20020915  'Generosity is a quality which shines throughout Murphy's work. But she is no soft touch or bleeding-heart liberal. While she exudes compassion and empathy she can be formidably hard-headed and short with bullshitters. In her latest -- perhaps finest -- book she has her fair share of hairy moments. Invariably, she is prepared to stand her ground with bullies.' -- Alan Taylor, Glasgow Sunday Herald 20020901  'Murphy isn't your average travel hack -- she insists on travelling by bicycle, or on foot.  Her bike isn't a comic prop, as in those lightweight travelogues where men lug fridges around foreign parts for a laugh, but a way of getting closer to her subject ! As events in Afghanistan demonstrate, a war's end is only the beginning of a long, often dangerous struggle to re-establish normality.  In its personal, humane, angry way, Through the Embers shows just how rocky that road can be.' -- Matthew Collin, The Guardian 20020928  'Dervla Murphy vividly conveys the bleak decay of post-war small-town life, remarkably similar in its combination of despair and bigotry whereever she goes' -- Time Literary Supplement 20030214