INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE NOMINEE • A remarkable novel of suffering love and healing-the
story of three generations of women on an unlikely journey to a Croatian island and a secret
that needs to be told-from the internationally best-selling author of To the End of the Land A
magnificent book ... The way Grossman writes about these regions is unique with a deep
understanding of our experience. -Josip Mlakic Express (Croatia) More Than I Love My Life is
the story of three strong women: Vera age ninety her daughter Nina and her granddaughter
Gili who at thirty-nine is a filmmaker and a wary consumer of affection. A bitter secret
divides each mother and daughter pair though Gili-abandoned by Nina when she was just
three-has always been close to her grandmother. With Gili making the arrangements they travel
together to Goli Otok a barren island off the coast of Croatia where Vera was imprisoned and
tortured for three years as a young wife after she refused to betray her husband and denounce
him as an enemy of the people. This unlikely journey-filtered through the lens of Gili's camera
as she seeks to make a film that might help explain her life-lays bare the intertwining of fear
love and mercy and the complex overlapping demands of romantic and parental passion. More
Than I Love My Life was inspired by the true story of one of David Grossman's longtime
confidantes a woman who in the early 1950s was held on the notorious Goli Otok (the Adriatic
Alcatraz). With flashbacks to the stalwart Vera protecting what was most precious on the
wretched rock where she was held and Grossman's fearless examination of the human heart this
swift novel is a thrilling addition to the oeuvre of one of our greatest living novelists
whose revered moral voice continues to resonate around the world.
