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    The Trigger
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    The Trigger
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    The Trigger
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Trigger

    Written by Tim Butcher

    Narrated by Tim Butcher

    4.5/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    On a summer morning in Sarajevo a hundred years ago, a teenage assassin fired not just the opening shots of the First World War but the starting gun for modern history. By killing Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Gavrilo Princip triggered conflict that would claim millions of lives in battle, and turmoil that would change our world. Tim Butcher uncovers the unreported details of Princip's life and draws on his own experience, as a war reporter in the Balkans in the 1990s, to face down ghosts of conflicts past and present.
    The Trigger is a rich and timely work that brings to life both the moment the world first went to war and an extraordinary region with a potent hold over history
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherW. F. Howes Ltd
    Release dateJul 10, 2014
    ISBN9781471262852
    Unavailable
    The Trigger

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    Reviews for The Trigger

    4.5/5

    26 ratings4 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Great and interesting book,as usual Tim Butcher manages to bring history to life and makes it feel adventurous, entering, sad and personal. I only wish he would either let someone else read his books, or even better, learn to slow down when reading. He reads so fast it's hard to really enjoy the book, making it an hectic and slightly strenuous experience. I coped by turning down the reading speed, something that rarely works but it did in his case. Which might tell you something about how fast the original is.
      This book was actually in parts a bit better in this regard than ' River of Blood' another great book by this author but also read by him as if he is trying to catch a plane and already half an hour late, which fails to do a great book justice.
    • 4/5
      This book is equal parts biography, memoir, history, and travelogue. Tim Butcher travels Gavrilo Princip’s path from a small village in Herzegovina to Sarajevo to Belgrade and back to Sarajevo, where Princip fired the shots that took the life of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in 1914. This act is often cited as the spark than launched the Great War. During Butcher’s trek, he recalls his time as a journalist reporting on the Bosnian War in the 1990s. Covering Bosnian history from three timelines, 1910s, 1990s, and present day, and filling in the historical context, is an effective way to provide the big picture.

      Butcher tracks the development of Princip from childhood to gifted student to assassin. He discovers a stone slab on which Princip had carved his initials, his school records, and evidence of his increasing involvement in political causes. Butch portrays Princip’s motivation to free the South-Slavs from rule by Austria-Hungary. Since Princip lived only 23 years, over a hundred years ago, the primary source material is limited, but Butcher has managed to craft these nuggets into a storyline that is easy to follow and provides a wealth of information. If you are interested in the history of Bosnia/Herzegovina or WWI, this is a great one to pick up.
    • 5/5
      This book really affected me. It's written by a British journalist who decides to follow the footsteps--literally--of Gavriel Princip from his boyhood home to his assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. He hikes across the country writing part travelogue, part history book. To add another layer, he had been in Bosnia during the Bosnian War in the 1990s, so he's also telling the story of his time there--and there are a few stories of WWII thrown in for good measure. Really fascinating. It's a scary book, too, though because you see how little it takes before next door neighbors are sending bullets through each others' doors. People don't realize how easy it is to blow everything up.
    • 5/5
      I really liked this book! It developed into a saga I had not expected. Not only does the author cover the life and times of Gavrilo Princip, he also deals with the geography of the Balkans, some of its politics, its history. In a relatively short book the author adequately covers a great deal of ground. Of particular interest to me is the evolution of Princip's political views and philosophy. I will not spoil the book, but suffice to say Princip's ultimate goals were shown not to what I had believed after reading many books on the origins of WWI. Tim Butcher does an outstanding of job of walking us through the growth and motivation for Princip in the assassination in June, 1914. Very much worth the read.