Presentation of the book by Boštjan Videmšek and Abha Valentina Lo Surdo - "The Long Path to Peace"

We invite you to the presentation of the book by Boštjan Videmšek and Abha Valetnine Lo Surdo entitled "The Long Path to Peace", on Thursday, January 22, 2026, at 6 p.m., in the conference hall of the Peace Monument in Cerje.

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

The book was created with the help of the BeWoP project - Beyond the Path of Peace: from cross-border historical research and cultural heritage to European paths and stories, co-financed by the European Union under the Interreg VI-A Italy-Slovenia Programme.
The event will be held in Slovenian. A similar event for the Italian public will be held in Italian in the coming months.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

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

In the "Slovenian" part of the book, long-time war correspondent and author of several books, Boštjan Videmšek went to the eastern battlefields of the First World War, where he learned in Galicia (part of present-day Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine) that more Slovenian soldiers (at least 33,000) died there in the uniforms of the Austro-Hungarian army than partisans during the Second World War. While visiting the First World War cemetery, Videmšek also visited military hospitals in Ukraine, where one of the worst wars of our time is taking place in many places on the same geography. With stops in Auschwitz and Srebrenica, scenes of absolute horror, field research and thorough archival work, and a multitude of interviews, the author tries to answer whether war ever ends and what, if anything, is an easy path to peace - the spirit of Gaza, today's genocide, is constantly present in Videmšek's part of the book. He proves that never again always turns into always again.

The Italian part of the book is the work of world traveler, hiker, musician and radio host Abha Valentina Lo Surdo, who walked through the Soča and Karst regions along the battlefields of the Isonzo Front, where her great-grandfather Arturo fought during World War I. In her part of the book, Lo Surdo also introduces key people of the Peace Trail from the Alps to the Adriatic, which has become one of the most recognizable European thematic hiking trails in the last twenty years, and her foundation, together with the partners of the BeWoP project (Interreg Programme Italy-Slovenia), initiated the book.

The Long Path to Peace is a unique and extremely topical book that deals with issues of memory, history, trauma, and the importance of storytelling.