Ljeta s Marijom

Across a hundred summers, from 1921 to 2021, the novel follows the women of one family in an old stone house in an unnamed Dalmatian town, all of them called Marija or a form of the name: Mare, Marijola, Maša, Mara, Marijeta. Eighteen dated episodes, most of them set in summer, bring first periods, war years, falling in love, friendships, family gatherings, marriages and betrayals, journeys and tragedies, and the isolation that a "wrong" surname could bring in a time of nationalism. A closing part follows Marijola over three days in autumn 2021 and ties the threads together, while the youngest, the schoolgirl Mara, draws a family tree that holds only women's names. The stories grew out of the author's own family lore, photographs, letters and songs.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

168 pages in the original

Genres

Family, Historical (assigned by AI)

Set in

Croatia

First published

2022 by Fraktura

Author's age

48 when first published

ISBN

9789533585062 (original)