Kin is a dazzling family epic from one of Croatia's most prized writers. In this sprawling
narrative which spans the entire twentieth century Miljenko Jergovi peers into the dusty
corners of his family's past illuminating them with a tender poetic precision. Ordinary
forgotten objects - a grandfather's beekeeping journals a rusty benzene lighter an army
issued raincoat - become the lenses through which Jergovi investigates the joys and sorrows of
a family living through a century of war. The work is ultimately an ode to Yugoslavia - Jergovi
sees his country through the devastation of the First World War the Second the Cold then the
Bosnian war of the 90s through its changing street names and borders shifting seasons
through its social rituals at graveyards operas weddings markets - rendering it all in
loving vivid detail. A portrait of an era.
