Novelists do their best to take you inside the worlds they create for their narratives and characters. Matthew Palmer, has lived inside his novels as a 25-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service.
Mr. Palmer has worked as a diplomat all over the world. His ties to the Balkans are especially deep. He served as the desk officer for Yugoslavia through the end of the 1999 Kosovo conflict. He was posted twice to the American Embassy in Belgrade, initially as a first-tour officer at the height of the war in Bosnia and, more recently, as political counselor. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has written two other political thrillers “The American Mission,” set in the Congo, and “Secrets of State,” that focuses on India and Pakistan relations.
His many experiences in the region served as inspiration for his latest book, “The Wolf of Sarajevo.” In it, we meet Eric Petrosian, a journalist-turned-diplomat at the American embassy in Sarajevo who is working alongside some leaders in the region — and against power-hungry others — to prevent war once again in the Balkans.
