Wastelands is a vivid account of the lives of Ashkali scavengers (waste recyclers) in Belgrade, Serbia. Eirik Saethre masterfully uses rich description, drawn from deeply embedded ethnographic fieldwork, to portray people's lives in spaces of “exception”—marginal, invisible, unregulated, yet also exploited. The book focuses on Ashkalije: Albanian-speaking people displaced from Kosovo by war and racism, often called “Gypsies” (or Roma) by others despite their distinct cultural identity. Wastelands is all the more significant because it sheds light on the specific struggles of Ashkali “internally displaced persons” in Serbia and Kosovo, people whose circumstances (and needs) have received much less attention than those of Roma more broadly.

The book comprises five chapters in addition to the introduction and conclusion. The introduction lays the groundwork by describing the particulars of the community in question, discussing Saethre's research methods and positionality, and by briefly outlining the key themes of analysis in the rest of the work. Chapter 1 explores the sociality of settlement life, highlighting the ethno-cultural diversity of settlement residents in contrast to their homogenization as “poor Gypsies” in wider society. It also delves into the ways that these marginalized people build strategic—but often precarious—social networks through exchange and banter. Chapter 2 addresses “home-making” in the settlement, not only in terms of physically creating shelter but also how residents strive to make spaces comfortable and regulate intimacy (or distance) vis-à-vis neighbors. Chapter 3 addresses the core issue of scavenging and waste recycling as labor, laying out the economics of various niches (paper, metal, and resale of other goods). Saethre also masterfully illustrates the embodied dimensions of scavenging-as-labor in “abject” contexts, juxtaposing taxing realities with popular derision for this work in mainstream society. Chapter 4 explores residents’ attempts to improve their lot by using entrepreneurial strategies to maximize returns, expand into new niches, or access state resources. Yet Saethre shows that nearly insurmountable structural barriers and pervasive racism often thwart their efforts, while benefits reaped are usually ephemeral and cannot support long term change. Chapter 5 addresses “relocations,” documenting residents’ attempts to navigate forcible removal from settlements, loss of livelihood through displacement, and the neglect and racism of state institutions both near (Serbia and Kosovo) and far (western EU nations) that lead to asylum rejection or problematic resettlement. In the end, Saethre shows that most residents cannot “fully leave” the settlement despite their relocation, needing to return for scavenging work and social networks. Finally, Saethre recounts more recent developments in these peoples’ lives in the conclusion to reiterate how key phenomena—economic change, racism, state biopolitics, hard labor, and abject poverty—impact residents. He shows how precarity, violence, tragedy, and constant struggle shape life in this “space of exception,” where residents strive for a modicum of agency and autonomy even as they ruefully say “Jebem ti život”—“Fuck [this] life.”

Saethre's Wastelands offers significant interventions for scholarship on marginalized people—and Balkan RAE (Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptians) in particular—in the context of post-socialist eastern Europe. He prioritizes rich ethnography to powerfully ground his analysis of marginality, biopolitics, labor, and agency among other things; this is a major strength of the work. The thick description humanizes Ashkali scavengers without reifying them, leading readers to “experience-near” empathy for their struggles. On the level of conceptual contributions, Saethre unpacks multiple valences of the notion of “trash” in particularly thought-provoking ways. He draws cogent parallels between how waste is discarded as “material without value” and how mainstream society sees Ashkali and Romani scavengers as “people without value;” however, Ashkali demonstrate that trash actually is valuable by profiting from its re-use, pushing back in turn against hegemonic tropes that dismiss them as worthless. For instance, Saethre points out how Ashkali scavengers are essential links in burgeoning transnational networks of waste-as-commerce.

Given the value of Wasteland's contributions, little detracts from the book's impact. Addressing macro-level phenomena like post-socialist economic crises and anti-Gypsyism in greater detail to better contextualize Ashkali experiences would have strengthened Saethre's analysis. Moreover, a few inaccurate renderings of Romani group names (“Ludari” instead of Rudari, for example) and occasional awkward use of Serbian words in the text may distract readers familiar with the region. These issues aside, Wastelands is an important addition to scholarship on marginality, precarity, racism, and the state in post-socialist eastern Europe. Additionally, its ethnographic depth and straightforward writing make it quite accessible to a broader public—only adding to its potential impact and significance.