Exploring the deep bond between Grandma Nedjeljka and her granddaughter, the novel spans from 1938 to 2016, weaving through their lives in Split, Croatia, and Sicily. The narrative unfolds through imagined conversations, highlighting themes of cross-cultural love, family, and the impact of war and migration. Grandma Non-Oui's youthful romance with an Italian soldier during WWII sets the stage for reflections on their differing experiences, showcasing the generational ties that connect their stories across time and place.
Zlata and Srebra are 12-year-old twins conjoined at the head. It is 1984 and they live in Skopje, which will one day be the capital of Macedonia but is currently a part of Yugoslavia. A Spare Life tells the story of their childhood, from their only friend Roze to their neighbor Bogdan, so poor that he one day must eat his pet rabbit. Treated as freaks and outcasts--even by their own family--the twins just want to be normal girls. But after an incident that almost destroys their bond as sisters, they fly to London, determined to be surgically separated. Will this be their liberation, or only more tightly ensnare them? At once extraordinary and quotidian, A Spare Life is a chronicle of two girls who are among the first generation to come of age under democracy in Eastern Europe. Written in touching prose by an author who is also a master poet, it is a saga about families, sisterhood, immigration, and the occult influences that shape a life. Funny, poignant, dark, and sharply observed, Zlata and Srebra reveal an existence where even the simplest of actions is unlike any we've ever experienced.
