Presentation of the book "The Long Path to Peace"

On Thursday, 22 January 2026, at 6:00 p.m., the presentation of the book The Long Path to Peace by Boštjan Videmšek and Abha Valentina Lo Surdo will take place in the conference hall of the Monument to Peace on Mount Cerje.

The central part of the evening will be a conversation with the author Boštjan Videmšek and historian Dr. Petra Svoljšak (ZRC SAZU), who will guide the audience along The Long Path to Peace. The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Martin Pogačar (ZRC SAZU).

The event will be held in the Slovenian language. A similar event for the Italian public, in Italian, will be organised in the upcoming months.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The Long Path to Peace is a book about war and peace, written from two different perspectives by Slovenian journalist and war correspondent Boštjan Videmšek and Italian journalist and hiker Abha Valentina Lo Surdo.

A long-time war reporter and author of several books, Boštjan Videmšek sets out in the “Slovenian” part of the book to the eastern battlefields of the First World War. In Galicia (parts of today’s Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine), he discovers that more Slovenian soldiers—at least 33,000—died there in the uniforms of the Austro-Hungarian army than the number of partisans who died during the Second World War. While visiting First World War cemeteries, Videmšek also travelled to war hospitals in Ukraine, where one of the most devastating wars of our time is unfolding across much of the same geographical space. Through stops in Auschwitz and Srebrenica—sites of absolute horror—combined with field research, extensive archival work, and numerous interviews, the author seeks to answer whether war ever truly ends and what the path to peace might be, if it exists at all. Throughout Videmšek’s part of the book, the spirit of Gaza—today’s genocide—is ever-present, serving as proof that “never again” too often turns into “again and again.”

The Italian part of the book is the work of world traveller, hiker, musician, and radio host Abha Valentina Lo Surdo, who walked through the Soča Valley and the Karst region along the battlefields of the Isonzo Front, where her great-grandfather Arturo fought during the First World War. In her contribution, Lo Surdo also presents the key people behind the Walk of Peace from the Alps to the Adriatic, which over the past twenty years has become one of Europe’s most recognisable thematic hiking trails. Its foundation, together with the partners of the BeWoP project (Interreg Italy–Slovenia Programme), initiated the creation of this book.

The Long Path to Peace is a unique and profoundly timely book that addresses questions of memory, history, trauma, and the vital importance of storytelling.