Blood-Soaked Soil

From Early Life in Communist Yugoslavia to the First Months of War

By: Mario Bekes

Narrated by: Mario Bekes, Nick Hill, Dave Stokes

Imagine yourself in my shoes. Imagine being 18 years old, and in just 24 hours, the world you knew stopped existing. Imagine being a teenager and learning all these skills that were designed for one purpose - to kill others. Growing up in Communist Croatia (then part of Yugoslavia), Mario Bekes witnessed a lot of social unrest - before finding himself in the middle of the Croatian War of Independence.

Mario's world quickly turned upside-down. One morning he woke to a knock at the door. His family and his girlfriend were gone. His neighbors were packing, fleeing the city. And the military were at his door, saying, "Report at the army barracks in one hour." Minutes later, the city was being shelled - and Mario was off to fight in a war he'd never chosen. Over the next few years he'd experience the horrors of war first hand - witnessing sheer destruction, death, suffering and broken hearts right in front of him.

©2021 Mario Bekes (P)2021 Mario Bekes

Blown Away by Mario’s story

Wow. This book hits the reader in the gut. It’s a story like you never hear it would hear. Most people would never survive to tell it. Mario Bekes grows up an abused and unloved child in communism to a soldier in the Croatian war for independence. It’s just not long enough! But I hear there is a part two. Thank goodness. I don’t want this story to end because I know he survives and overcomes the horrors and the hauntings of lost love. But it’s even more effective given he’s the narrator.