Where the literature associated with some countries is defined by a single historical event, the literary associations of Macedonia are dominated by a single historical figure - which is a problem, because although his realm very clearly included most if not all of the territory of today's Republic of Macedonia, most of his life was spent far away - indeed, very far away - so none of the many books about him is going to contain much of relevance for my purposes. For the record, anyway, the top three books about him on both LT and GR are the 1972 middle book of a famous trilogy, followed by the 1969 first book of that trilogy (it's unusual, I think, for a middle book to be the best known), followed by a 1974 biography. They are:
The Persian Boy, by Mary Renault
Fire from Heaven, by Mary Renault
Alexander the Great, by Robin Lane Fox
The top book actually set in Macedonia is not so much a "kiss and tell" story as a 2005 "spy and tell" story by a former CIA agent, who was posted there as her only real clandestine field assignment from 1998 to 2001. I must have been in the same room as her on a number of occasions, though I must say I barely recognise the Macedonia she portrays. Less than half the book is set in Macedonia (the first two-thirds are about her spy school training), so I'm noting it here for the record rather than awarding it today's prize. It is:
Blowing my Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy, by Lindsay Moran
The top book in Macedonian on Goodreads is a 1952 children's book by a well-known Macedonian writer. It's not clear to me if it actually is set in Macedonia, but I've been inclined to be generous in similar cases in the past. It does not appear to have been translated into English. It is:
Шеќерна приказна [Sugar Story], by Slavko Janevski
It is, however, invisible on LibraryThing, which seems generally less good on Macedonian literature than GR. so I'm giving today's prize to a 2007 graphic novel by two Americans about the international peace-building effort in Macedonia after the 2001 conflict. It's generally well-observed - indeed, several friends of mine appear in it, though drawn to look very different from their real appearances - and it's the best I could find on LT, and only just behind the children's book on GR. It is the approriately named:
Macedonia, by Harvey Pekar and Heather Roberson, illustrated by Ed Piskor