“Bosnia’s Ground Zero” in Vanity Fair

Back in 1996, Vanity Fair published a lengthy excerpt from my book, “Love Thy Neighbor.” I never received an electronic copy of the excerpt, so it wasn’t posted on this site (or anywhere on the web). In the past few months I received a number of enquiries about the excerpt, because it was mentioned in a best-selling book, “Freedom Writers,” that was made into a movie starring Hilary Swank. I dug around and finally found an electronic version of the excerpt. With a very small drum roll, here it is.

Author: Peter Maass

I was born and raised in Los Angeles. In 1983, after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, I went to Brussels as a copy editor for The Wall Street Journal/Europe. I left the Journal in 1985 to write for The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune, covering NATO and the European Union. In 1987 I moved to Seoul, South Korea, where I wrote primarily for The Washington Post. After three years in Asia I moved to Budapest to cover Eastern Europe and the Balkans. I spent most of 1992 and 1993 covering the war in Bosnia for the Post.