The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo

The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo | Paula Huntley

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Based on a journal the author kept while teaching ESL to a small group of 9 mostly young Albanian adults in Prishtina, Kosovo in 2000. The war between Albanian rebels & Serbia/Yugoslavia had just ended & over 800, 000 Albanians had returned to a war ravaged, bombed out city. (NATO intervened & bombed Serbian strongholds) she found one English book, The Old Man and the Sea, and created a bookclub for curriculum. She would ignore the “macho”...⬇️

kspenmoll in Hemingway & focus on the “ fable of an old man‘s struggle to bring in his big fish.” Students connected with this & it became a way for them to speak of their personal stories of living daily in and with terror. The author marveled at their optimism & dreams of a new nation & future amidst impossible odds. 4y

kspenmoll Interview with author: https://www.bookbrowse.com/author_interviews/full/index.cfm/author_number/882/pa... 4y

Texreader Excellent review 4y

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kspenmoll

The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo | Paula Huntley

These young adults in the author‘s class have grown up with constant violence,some driven from their homes,& sent by train to camps or out of the country.They have experienced or witnessed terror,murder,torture,rape. Their homes & villages burned by Serbs.All Suffered for under a government of apartheid,their language, culture, schools,churches forbidden.By June of 1999 over 850,000 had been expelled & all their identifying documents destroyed.

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kspenmoll

The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo | Paula Huntley

“Ed walked up the street...to meet with Senator Joe Biden.” Joe Biden visited Kosovo after its war with Serbia(1998-9)In 2016 he & family attended a highway dedication for his dead son Beau. Beau worked in Kosovo (2001)as a lawyer for the OSCE/The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.The goals for this organization were similar to The American Bar Association‘s goals in Kosovo, for whom the author‘s attorney husband, Ed, worked.

kspenmoll More: https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2016/08/17/road-kosovo-named-after-bea... 4y

kspenmoll Beau & Ed may have run into each other in their work - both were there in 2001 but I don‘t know if their months overlapped. Paula & Ed left in late April 2001. 4y

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kspenmoll

The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo | Paula Huntley

“I am able to be simply present now. I listen more, talk less. “- Paula Huntley

Amiable At 54 this really resonates with me —thanks for sharing. 4y

kspenmoll @Amiable Me too, at 10 years your senior! 😍 4y

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kspenmoll

The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo | Paula Huntley

Paula Huntley is in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo in 2000, shortly after a civil war. NATO intervened & bombed Serbian strongholds. Serbia‘s take over included a planned genocide for Albanians. Paula is there with her husband. A volunteer lawyer for the American Bar Asoc he was there to help build a new legal system. She joined him and taught English to young adults. This is her memoir, based on her journals.

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kspenmoll

The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo | Paula Huntley

Another fascinating Kate Ellis, #bookspin #2, & a mystery set on Cape Cod,with its marshes,ponds,coastline,sailing,seafood- a NYC top chef suffers a huge fall from grace & inherits her aunt‘s run down Cape located in the town she grew up in.Now a food reporter she stumbles upon a murder.There‘s a dog,a librarian, old friends, food & romance.The whodunit surprised me. Fun light #cozy.At various stages with other books. #weeklyreport #weeklyforecast