On a summer morning in Sarajevo a hundred years ago, a teenage assassin fired not just the opening shots of the First World War but the starting gun for modern history.By killing Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Gavrilo Princip triggered conflict that would claim millions of lives in battle, and turmoil that would change our world. So monumental were the events brought about by Princip that his own story has been largely overlooked, his role garbled and motivations misrepresented. The Trigger puts this right, filling out as never before a figure whose legacy still impacts all of us. Born a penniless backwoodsman, Princip embarked on a life-changing journey when he trekked across Bosnia and Serbia to attend school. As he ventured across fault lines of faith, nationalism and empire, so tightly clustered in the Balkans, he underwent a radicalisation that transformed him from a frail farm boy into history's most influential assassin. By retracing Princip's journey from his home village, through the mythical valleys of Bosnia to the fortress city of Belgrade and ultimately Sarajevo, Tim Butcher illuminates our understanding both of Princip and the places that shaped him. Tim uncovers details about Princip that have eluded historians for a century and draws on his own experience, as a war reporter in the Balkans in the 1990s, to face down ghosts of conflicts past and present.

The Trigger is a rich and timely work that brings to life both the moment the world first went to war and an extraordinary region with a potent hold over history.