Until recently, the Balkans were an unexplored peninsula for most Greeks. The fall of communist regimes, the opening of borders, and the European perspective of the Balkan countries brought Greece back to its natural space and encouraged Greeks to rediscover their Balkan hinterland. The wars in former Yugoslavia also contributed to this, dramatically reminding us that the Balkans continue to be a space of threats, where the old demons of nationalism and xenophobia remain alive, thirsting for blood.

The book you are holding in your hands contributes in a unique way to Greek Balkanology. It is not a typical study book on the Balkans. It is more of a special "intellectual map," constructed by George Stamko and Militsa Kosanovic, two Balkan authors with different national origins but also cosmologies, who take the reader on a rational and metaphysical journey into the complex universe of the Balkans. It expresses the "masculine" and "feminine" aspects of the Balkans, which it perceives not in black and white and fragmentary terms, but in colorful and synthetic terms.

Within its pages, unknown history, contemporary politics, human geography, metaphysics, paradoxology, legends, and traditions of our peninsula parade. History and geopolitics, along with metaphysics and paradoxology. The rational and the fantastic. In short, it is a guidebook to the real and dreamlike Balkans. Above all, however, it is a book made with love and genuine interest in our peninsula and the peoples who inhabit it. A book that is the essence of long-term study and the experiences of the two authors on Balkan issues. A book that invites you to explore the "Haunted Balkans"...