The Dawning

The moving family saga set in Bosnia-Herzegovina, also reviews the history behind the current Balkan crises. This record of personal joys and far more numerous sorrows of four generations of the Zarkovics, a Serbian merchant clan, would be compelling in any setting, but the Balkans in the 60 years leading up to WWI make for a particularly vivid and tumultuous one. Born in Plevlje near the Montenegrin border with Bosnia-Hercegovina in 1904, Bajic-Poderegin completed this, her only novel, just before her death in 1971. Its themes of of nationalism, religious divisiveness and fierce class and gender constraints stretching back centuries are timely and tragic. Opening with an unhappy bride entering into her arranged marriage, the book chronicles efforts to overcome the society's rigid prejudices and preconceptions. The members of the Zarkovic clan become more liberal with each generation, but such forward-thinking comes at a price--often paid most heavily by women. If news reports are anything to go by, then today's Bosnian women have much in common with those portrayed by Bajic-Poderegin. Tortured and betrayed, defiled and homeless, they mourn fathers, sons and husbands, yet struggle stubbornly to regain a thread of dignity to believe in when all else is lost. (Oct.)