My Family and Other Enemies: Life and Travels in Croatia’s Hinterland

by Mary Novakovich

In My Family and Other Enemies, the UK-based journalist Mary Novakovich explores her familial relationship with Lika, a region of central Croatia. “It’s a region of wild beauty that has been battered by centuries of conflict,” she explains. “Used as a buffer zone between the Habsburg and Ottoman empires for hundreds of years, Lika became a land of war and warriors. And when Yugoslavia started to disintegrate in 1991, it was here where some of the first shots were fired.” Having first visited Lika as a child, Novakovich has returned many times throughout her life, but the relationship has been complicated by its—and her family’s—troubled history. Although Novakovich has previously published several guidebooks to Croatia, this is her first travelogue.