Lead Review (The Fig Tree)
- Book: The Fig Tree
- Location: Balkans
- Author: Goran Vojnović, Olivia Hellewell (Translator)
Jadran is in his 30s. His wife has just moved out and now he is on a quest to understand more about himself in order to understand why he has landed at such a crossroads. Trawling back through his family’s history, he starts with his grandfather’s recollections, moving forward through time and place. Perhaps the subliminal family messages, dynamics and experiences have informed his personality….
The people function as a kind of overlay to the strong depiction of tumultuous events that scarred the Balkans in the second half of the 20th Century. There are, of course, some nuanced characterisations, like grandmother, who is struggling with dementia, but generally the people feel like vehicles in order to get to grips with the phenomenally complex history of the area. Which, actually, feels quite helpful to someone unfamiliar with events.
It is sometimes unclear which person is the heart of each chapter and thus maintaining a sense of an ordered account can feel quite challenging. But it is a useful read if you want to understand the issues that people have faced over several decades.
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