28 June 1389, the Field of the Blackbirds, The Christian army - made up of Serbs, Bosnians, Albanians and Romanians - confronts an Ottoman army led by Sultan Mourad. In ten hours the battle is over, and the Muslims possess the field; an outcome that has haunted the vanquished ever since. These legends of betrayal and the symbols of defeat have continued to define the national identities of each race.28 June 1989, the Serb leader Slogodan Milosevic launches his campaign for a fresh massacre of the Albanians, the majority population of Kosovo.In three short narratives Kadare evokes that first defining moment in European history, identifying how the agony of one tiny population at the close of the twentieth century is a symptom of the sickness that European civilisation has carried in its bloodstream for six hundred years. Read Less