The File on H.

In the mid 1930s, two young American scholars voyage to the Albanian highlands, the last remaining natural habitat of the oral epic, with one of the world's first tape recorders in hand. Their mission? To discover how Homer could have composed works such as The Iliad and The Odyssey without ever writing them down. Their research puts them at the center of ethnic strife in the Balkans and, mistaken for foreign spies, they are placed under surveillance. Research and intrigue proceed apace, until a Serbian monk plots a violent end to their project.-- A work of inventive genius, "The File On H." is also a profound and eloquent comment on one of the most intractable conflicts of our time.-- A funny, satirical tale of two American innocents abroad in search of Homer in modern Albania.