Ljiljana Habjanović-Đurović

This novel started out well and I learned a lot of things that I hadn't known about Serbia or Croatia and the tensions between Serbs and Croats. Iva, the narrator, has a Serbian mother and a Croatian father. Iva's father moves the family to Zagreb, where they live with his autocratic mother, Ana Marija, a gentlewoman of the Austro-Hungarian Empire whose wealth and social status were completely wiped out after WWII. Iva tries to win the approval of this detestable old woman, but the price of Ana Marija's approval is Iva's loyalty to her mother, whom the whole family despises for being a Serb. This could have been a very good novel; unfortunately it was rather disjointed and digressive, and the ending in particular left me with many unanswered questions.… (plus d'informations)