Late April 1997. After a long negotiation, Telecom Italia (with the Greek OTE) acquires 49 percent of the shares of Telekom Serbia. The deal, in which the secret services of the two countries are also involved, is facilitated by strange characters, the so-called "facilitators", linked to the Serbian president Slobodan Milošević. The Italian company pays an enormous sum: 1.500 million German marks that Milošević demands in cash and that, in part, is delivered to him by private jet in eighteen jute sacks from the Serbian Post Office. A Balkan Affair is inspired by that disturbing transaction and the author, at the time responsible for the Corporate Press of Telecom Italia, mixes historical truth and fiction in the novel with his usual mastery, extricating himself from mysterious women, dancing bears, Serbian folk singers and bursts of Kalashnikov fire to give the reader gripping pages.

Diego Zandel, A Balkan Affair, Voland, Rome 2024, 200 pp., €18,00

Diego Zandel – Son of Fiume exiles, he was born in the refugee camp of Servigliano in 1948. He has written about twenty novels, including Massacre for a President (Mondadori 1981), An Istrian story (Rusconi 1987), The Boundaries of Hate (Aragno 2002, Gammarò 2022), The Greek Brother (Hacca 2010), The silent witnesses (Mursia 2011). An expert on the Balkans, he is also one of the authors of the documentary film Sarajevo hotels, produced by Clipper Media and Rai Cinema (2022).