In a Nutshell:

I found this wonderful read thanks to a recommendation from my friend, Anja. I read this on my kindle.

This multigenerational novel tells the story of five female generations, within the same family, told from the perspective of Iva, who’s the youngest of the five generations. The feminine genealogy goes from Krstinja, through Milena, Marcia and Vera to Iva. There were some parts that needed to be tighter but overall I really enjoyed it. It seems that this book was translated from Serbian into English, by the author.

Themes:

Love, loss, family, traditions and women.

An Observation:

Interesting to see how utterly devastating it was for one woman to be seen as being a “divorcée” and how at the time, that scarred her for life.

A Quote:

“Today I am the wealthy successor of the bloody anthology of women’s suffering.”

Author: Ljiljana Habjanović Djurović

Ljiljana Habjanović Djurović was born in 1953, in Kruševac, Serbia. She studied at Belgrade University (Faculty of Economics). She worked as a bank clerk and in foreign tourism, as a journalist and editor with ‘DUGA’ — a monthly magazine. In 2003, she founded the publishing house ‘Globosino Aleksandrija’, she is still the owner and editor in chief.
She is the author of twelve novels.
She has also published a book on literary publishing, titled Serbia in Front of a Mirror (1994).
She is the editor of three anthologies of spiritual poetry
Ever since the publication of the novel Feminine Genealogy, in May 1996, Ljiljana Habjanovic Djurovic has been the most widely read and most published author with the largest circulation of books written in the Serbian language. Her novels have sold more than one million copies.
Since 2000, Ljiljana Habjanovic Djurovic has also been the most successful Serbian authoress outside the country. She has published thirty-six books in fourteen languages (in fifty-two separate editions. Ljiljana Habjanovic Djurovic is married to Milovan Djurovic and has a son, Hadzi-Aleksandar.

Publisher: Globosino

Publishing Date: 31.03.2014

A bit about me!

A bit about me, my name is Jess Andoh-Thayre. I am from Brixton, South London. I currently live in Cambodia. Before living here in Cambodia, I lived in Tanzania with my husband, who is a diplomat. I have also lived in Chile and Spain. I am a French, Spanish and English as an Additional Language (EAL) teacher. I recently qualified as a SENCo (Special Educational Needs Coordinator). After taking three years off to have a baby in a pandemic and also retrain, I have just returned to work as an Elementary Learning Support Teacher.