First published 1997
Sonja Buloh was three years old when her mother disappeared into a Tasmanian blizzard, leaving her alone with her Slovenian father Bojan in a remote construction camp. The year was 1954, and Bojan had brought his family to the hydroelectric project in the highlands, hoping to escape the war that had torn through Slovenia and the refugee camps that followed. After his wife vanished, Bojan turned to drink while raising Sonja in isolation. Thirty-five years later, Sonja comes back to Tasmania as an adult, confronting the father she left behind. Bojan carries the weight of European war and more recent traumas that have shaped his bitter existence. As past and present collide, both father and daughter must reckon with the violence they fled, the harsh country that sheltered them, and the possibility that love might still offer redemption from their separate forms of emptiness.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: past-present-collide, redemption
Setting: Tasmania, Slovenia, Hydroelectric Project
Period: 1954, 1980s
425 pages · Hardcover · Macmillan
Content warnings: alcohol-abuse