<p>June 28,1389: Six hundred years before Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic called for therepression of the Albanian majority in Kosovo, there took place, on the Fieldof the Blackbirds, a battle shrouded in legend. A coalition of Serbs, AlbanianCatholics, Bosnians, and Romanians confronted and were defeated by the invadingOttoman army of the Sultan Murad. This battle established the Muslim footholdin Europe and became the centerpiece of Serbian nationalist ideology,justifying the campaign of ethnic cleansing of Albanian Kosovars that the worldwitnessed with horror at the end of the past century. </p><p>In thiseloquent and timely reflection on war, memory, and the destiny of two peoples,Ismail Kadare explores in fiction the legend and the consequences of thatdefeat.<em> Elegy for Kosovo </em>is aheartfelt yet clear-eyed lament for a land riven by hatreds as old as theHomeric epics and as young as the latest news broadcast.</p>