The Bosnian Wars matched the conflagration of World War II in intensity, if not scope. Both saw the decimation of cultures, attempted genocide, and what can only be called terrorism on a mass scale: warfare directed primarily against a civilian populace. Also, both wars have given rise to outstanding literature. Like Eating a Stone is a brief, lyrical evocation of the aftermath of the Bosnian disaster‹the reverberations of which continue to this day.

Here we travel through the ravaged postwar landscape in the company of a few survivors (mostly women) as they visit the scenes of their loss: a hall where victims’ clothing is displayed; an underground cave littered with pale jumbles of bones; a camp for homeless refugees; a city now abandoned to the ghosts of painful memories; a funeral service where a family can finally say goodbye. These encounters are snapshots and memorials, a feat of powerful reportage told from the viewpoint of people who have lost nearly everything. With the sensibility of Philip Gourevitch or Ryszard Kapuscinski, Tochman captures a painful moment in history, as an entire community comes to terms with its raw and recent past.