My Family and Other Enemies by Mary Novakovich

4 out of 5 stars

A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.

I have only been to Croatia once. We had a lovely holiday, the only sour moment being when my wallet was nicked in Spit when were there for the day. We visited various spots including a beautiful national park where we had one of the largest thunderstorms that I personally have ever known. The family that owned the place where we stayed were all lovely and there was no hint of the atrocities that took place there when the region descended into war in the early 1990s.

Mary Novakovich has a very different experience of the country though, her parent were born there but ended up in the UK leaving behind many relatives. She first visited in 1976 to stay with family when the country was still ruled by Tito, Even though she had been brought up in a Serbian-speaking household, she realised that she was going to struggle to understand these relatives that she had never seen before. They were equally bemused by this girl who had a funny accent, It was quite a culture shock for both sides of the family, but they all made memories that they still recalled many years on.

It would be another 28 years before she returned.

Her mother, Jelka would accompany her on this trip in 2004. She has a list of places that she wants to go to with the hope of unravelling some of her family histories a bit more. Being older and wiser she could appreciate the beauty of the place and especially the food much more. She is revelling in the chance to discover more about the country and has a list of things to do. Her mother has other ideas though and it leads to quite a strained trip at times.

She heads out there again in 2009 with her mother, but in 2011 she arrives in the country with her husband. He had heard so much about the place and this was his first time there. They arrived to find there was a wine festival taking place. Somehow they managed to be free of hangovers in the morning and set off on their travels around Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia and into Hungary. She manages to get to meet and see people that she didn’t have the opportunity to do on earlier trips. Her final visit was in 2019 just before travel became almost impossible because of the pandemic.

I did like the layering of her travels in the region. Some of the visits may have been short, but it added depth to the work she was doing as she pieced together her own family history. I felt that I became part of her journey of discovery of her family and the place where they still lived. I liked her writing style too, she is open and honest about the many tragedies that have befallen the country and the horrid events that the people, including her family, have suffered. She is a sensitive traveller too, noting the strides that have been made since the wars whilst acknowledging the raw feelings and hurt that still lie just under the surface. I really liked this, it is an insight into a country by an author who brings it to life.