When Marina’s father summons her to their Croatian island from New York—and away from her evaporating marriage—to help him save his failing cheese factory, she must face her rocky past and an uncertain future. How do you begin again when the past threatens to drown you? In the throes of an unraveling marriage, New Yorker Marina Maržić returns to her native Croatian island where she helps her father with his struggling cheese factory, Sirana. Forced to confront her divided Croatian-American identity and her past as a refugee from the former Yugoslavia, Marina moves in with her parents on Pag and starts a new life working at Sirana. As she gradually settles back into a place that was once home, her life becomes inextricably intertwined with their island’s cheese. When her past with the son of a rival cheesemaker stokes further unrest on their divided island, she must find a way to save Sirana—and in the process, learn to belong on her own terms. Exploring underlying cultural and ethnic tensions in a complex region mired in centuries of war and turmoil, The Cheesemaker’s Daughter takes us through the year before Croatia joins the European Union. On the dramatic moonscape island of Pag, we are transported to strikingly barren vistas, medieval towns, and the mesmerizing Adriatic Sea, providing a rare window into a tight-knit community with strong family ties in a corner of the world where divisions are both real and imagined. Asking questions central to identity and the meaning of home, this richly drawn story reckons with how we survive inherited and personal traumas, and what it means to heal and reinvent oneself in the face of life’s challenges.
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The cheesemakers Daughter by Kristin Vukovic
Don't let the title fool you... this book was a really solid read!
When Marina's marriage crumbles, she leaves New York and returns to her native Croatia. Back to the cheese factory her family has owned for years. It's in deep financial trouble and it's up to Marina to try and help bring their cheese to the world while outshining their biggest rival.
It was awesome. It had this quiet brilliance to the writing and the story. I found the story most enjoyable because it wasn't wrapped up in a Romeo and Juliet style love affair. It touched on the relationship between marina and her ex-love who happens to be the son of their biggest cheese rival. I think the beauty of the story was in how Marina went home lost after the deterioration of her marriage and the loss of their baby. She built herself back and with it, her fathers business and it was a beautiful story of resilience and a deep love for family traditions.
4 stars
