This bookish Balkans hamlet is a 'village of enlightenment'

‘This is a village of enlightenment and education,’ says Stepanovski, who regularly welcomes guests with cups of coffee and shots of homemade fruit brandy. Photo: AFP

Most people packed up and left the remote North Macedonia village of Babino years ago.

But Stevo Stepanovski and his remarkable collection of 20,000 books stayed put in his almost abandoned valley.