Loading... Please wait...
Categories
New Products
Our Newsletter
- Home
- eBook Deals
- eBooks & Print
- Fiume – The Lost River by Branka Čubrilo (Print)
Fiume – The Lost River by Branka Čubrilo (Print)
Product Description
When a chance meeting with a mysterious, yet familiar, 'Stranger' at a party in Sydney sets off a cycle of memories, Beatrice Szabo opens Pandora's Box which she had kept under lock and key for over seventy years: she left her native town of Fiume eloping with a famous writer, an event that provoked a local scandal and broke hearts and souls of a few families for several generations.
When Beatrice came to Vienna with her lover in the aftermath of the Second World War, she never dreamt that beautiful Vienna would not be her last destination.
Under unfavorable circumstances she marries David Goldberg, a Viennese Jew; while the atmosphere of war engulfs Austria they witness 'Crystal Night' and the fear and panic that widely spread; she sets off alone on a journey through war and panic-stricken Europe only to find herself in a Faraway Land—strange, exotic and sleepy Australia where her life takes an unthinkable turn—“Freedom is another word for nothing left to lose.”
Print Book On Sale Now
Other Details
Product Reviews
-
Unparalleled in is scope and originality
Posted by Sanny Bowe on 20th Jun 2014
Fiume - The Lost River is unparalleled in its scope and originality, Branka's style and prose is something that I have never seen in many years of reading.
I read this book in one go, in one day: I just couldn't put it down. I cared so much about the characters: when they were happy I was happy, when they were sad so was I as I cared about Beatrice so much that turning each of the new pages I dreaded if she would find the way out from numerous unfavorable circumstances: the beginning of the Second World War and its victims, the Crystal Night, the panic and the loss of those she loved was heartbreaking. Branka has this magic ability to transport the reader into distant lands, different cultures and mindsets. One can taste the salty air of the coastline, hear the cricket song in the cypresses, or feel the heat reflected from the pavements of Sydney while being drawn into the penetrating psychology of the book's protagonists. Her writing is beautiful, elegant and I wished that the book was one neverending story.
Branka's prose is rich and those eminent entries of poetic prose into the body of the story makes one wonder - am I in a novel or is it a beautiful meaningful poem?
When I finished the book I spent almost an hour looking at the cover, opened the book again, started reading again, then decided to re-read it but I couldn't put myself through all the sad bits and agony again. Fantastic! Mesmerizing! It reaches the highest bar that Branka raised with 'The Mosaic of the Broken Soul', the book I had read in one go as well and that reading offered a host of therapeutic benefits.
