What happens when an author tries so strenuously to empathize with her subject that she loses control of her own book?.

... intriguing.

... raises the question of when it is worthwhile to give an outlet to a war criminal and what risks are involved.

The author allows readers to draw their own conclusions, suggesting that a sense of Serb nationalism drove Karadzic’s actions, leading him to believe that ethnic cleansing would ultimately create the new Serb order he desired. Stern’s book is a worthy complement to Robert Donia’s Radovan Karadzic: Architect of the Bosnian Genocide.

Stern quotes extensively from the large body of literature on the former Yugoslavia, and also explores such related topics as the legal definition of genocide, the international law on secession, the complexities of globalization and the “new man” that Communism hoped to create. These citations and digressions, often in lengthy footnotes, can lend the book the feel of a graduate school thesis, and some errors and false impressions creep in.

...Stern comes across as reluctant to ask her subject the really hard questions. Stern says it’s because she didn’t want Karadzic to lie to her and she hoped that seeing things through his eyes would lead to some deeper truth. The problem is it never does.

... scrupulously researched work by a skilled interviewer.

... a fascinating and nuanced portrait.