The Belgrade Five

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This engaging memoir provides a first-hand account of what it was like to grow up in the 1960s in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, during the Cold War era, when the author's country "belonged more to the East than to the West, but mostly to itself."

Based on a diary, this collection of anecdotes and vignettes focuses on five high school friends, and covers the four semesters and a summer vacation they spent together. It brings to life their passion for football and girls, academic failures and triumphs, pranks and escapades, travails and travels, letdowns and amends. Their watershed period cemented a lifelong friendship.

As it reveals the tone and the spirit of the times - music and fashion, books and movies, food and politics - the narrative weaves in the country's complex history, rich culture, natural beauty and religious diversity. And it gives tribute to the First Belgrade Gymnasium, one of the oldest high schools in the Balkans that played a pivotal role in their coming-of-age.