PRAISE FOR THE CHEESEMAKER'S DAUGHTER:
“Kristin Vukovic’s captivating debut novel delves into the intricate tapestry of familial bonds, self-discovery, and web of obligations that entangle so many immigrants. Vukovic skillfully crafts a sophisticated and graceful narrative, weaving a tale of a woman’s transformative journey. I loved this novel!”– Jean Kwok, New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Translation and The Leftover Woman
“The Cheesemaker’s Daughter is a beautiful exploration of family, identity, and the connections and responsibilities we have to those who came before us. Kristin Vukovic writes an elegant novel about a woman who blossoms into the person she was always meant to be.”– Jill Santopolo, New York Times bestselling author of Stars in an Italian Sky and The Light We Lost
“Where do we really belong and why? While still reeling from a devastating miscarriage and a fracturing marriage, New Yorker Marina is also forced to reckon with her roots and her culture, reluctantly returning to her native Croatia to help save her family’s cheese business. Set against the backdrop of Croatia’s dark history and the rich, fascinating world of cheese making, this is a literary page-turner with unforgettable heart.”– Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You and With or Without You
"Kristin Vuković's debut novel is a mouthwatering platter of culture, history, and the everlasting struggle for balance between tradition and progress....Vuković employs beautiful, all-encompassing sensory descriptions, from the smell of the herbs in the air to the squawk of seagulls, or the faded floral print on the sheets Marina had since before she could remember. These rich details build an enticing world."—Donna Edwards, Associated Press
"Vuković’s book wears its research lightly but it’s clear she knows her stuff, and those details are what makes ‘Daughter’ such a gouda read.”—Chris Hewitt, Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“[D]eftly weaves together themes of identity and belonging, love and loss, and growth and acceptance....Reading it, I was transported to that windswept island and felt like I was watching over Marina’s shoulder on her journey.”—Blane Bachelor, Condé Nast Traveler
“[In] the top five of the best books I've ever read….Kristin Vuković unspools such beauty into our lives with her words. She marvelously captures the rich experience of crossing cultures, finding one's cultural identity, and following your roots to find yourself….She is a master at capturing the essence of place.”—Dr. Jessie Voigts, Wandering Educators
“[Vuković’s] work blew me away. Her writing was stunning, her characters felt real, and as a cheese lover, it felt like she deeply understood what made cheese so rich with meaning.”—Hannah Howard, The Cheese Professor
"Bubbling with unexpected twists and connections, it is a gripping story that will encourage readers to examine their own identity and what makes a place home."—Vesna Jaksic Lowe, Panorama Journal
"The Cheesemaker’s Daughter is a beautiful book, with a heroine you will root for, set in a complex, fascinating place. This is not the Croatia of holiday brochures. It is a hard land, buffeted by strong winds, scorched by searing heat, where to survive is to be strong."— Jean Shields Fleming, Certain Age Magazine
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ABOUT THE CHEESEMAKER'S DAUGHTER:
Synopsis (from Amazon):
When Marina’s father summons her to their Croatian island from New York—and away from her evaporating marriage—to help him save his failing cheese factory, she must face her rocky past and an uncertain future.
How do you begin again when the past threatens to drown you?
In the throes of an unraveling marriage, New Yorker Marina Maržić returns to her native Croatian island where she helps her father with his struggling cheese factory, Sirana. Forced to confront her divided Croatian-American identity and her past as a refugee from the former Yugoslavia, Marina moves in with her parents on Pag and starts a new life working at Sirana. As she gradually settles back into a place that was once home, her life becomes inextricably intertwined with their island’s cheese. When her past with the son of a rival cheesemaker stokes further unrest on their divided island, she must find a way to save Sirana—and in the process, learn to belong on her own terms.
Exploring underlying cultural and ethnic tensions in a complex region mired in centuries of war and turmoil, The Cheesemaker’s Daughter takes us through the year before Croatia joins the European Union. On the dramatic moonscape island of Pag, we are transported to strikingly barren vistas, medieval towns, and the mesmerizing Adriatic Sea, providing a rare window into a tight-knit community with strong family ties in a corner of the world where divisions are both real and imagined. Asking questions central to identity and the meaning of home, this richly drawn story reckons with how we survive inherited and personal traumas, and what it means to heal and reinvent oneself in the face of life’s challenges.
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INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR
On writing:
How did you do research for your book?
I love on-the-ground research and speaking to people in person, observing an environment firsthand. It’s what first drew me to travel writing: I love really exploring a culture, getting underneath the skin of a place. That takes time, and many visits—people are sometimes skeptical of outsiders, especially in small communities. I started going to Croatia in 2000, and have been back more than two dozen times. In the early aughts, I interviewed people on camera from many walks of life about their experiences during the war in the former Yugoslavia: a nun, a student, and a historian, among others. It was the beginning of my obsession with Croatia, and also with how the war shaped people’s lives. On one of a handful of visits to the island of Pag, I stayed for a month in the off-season (from mid-September until mid-October) and really experienced a different aspect of island life, apart from summer tourism. The island has a very different feel as seasons change, and when the chaos of the summer subsided, I made friends with locals and learned insider aspects I wouldn’t have otherwise discovered.
Which was the hardest character to write? The easiest?
Many of the characters were hard to write, since their experiences are so different from my own lived experience. It required a lot of research and interviewing sources who had aspects of my characters’ experiences—especially Marina’s experience as a refugee from the war in the former Yugoslavia. I really wanted to capture her divided identity, feeling unmoored and not at home on her Croatian island or in New York City, where she thought she had made a life until it all came crumbling down.
What made you write a book about Croatia?
My Croatian heritage inspired me to visit Croatia, but I don’t have any personal connection to Pag. I was first inspired when I discovered that Pag is Croatia’s only divided island, and that theme of divisions runs through the novel, including the main character’s divided Croatian-American identity. The former Yugoslavia is now comprised of separate countries, and I was consumed with the question of how identity is shaped—geographically, culturally, politically, and also religiously. I wanted to create a character who had left Yugoslavia and returned to an independent country called Croatia; Marina has to grapple with her multiple cultural identities. Identity, belonging and home are central themes in the novel, and in many ways, this story is about Marina’s search for herself. It’s about her reinvention in a place that was once home.
There are many books out there about other countries. What makes yours different?
There are many books set in Italy, which is just across the Adriatic Sea from Croatia, but not many books set in Croatia—and I think mine might be the only novel set on a Croatian island! (I’m sure mine is the only novel set on a Croatian island that is known for its award-winning cheese.) There have been a lot of memoirs and novels that focus on the immigrant experience and assimilation in America, but not many about returning to your home country and reintegrating into a place that was once home after living half of your life elsewhere. I think that feeling of displacement—whether physical or emotional—is universally relatable.
What advice would you give budding writers?
Try to do some kind of writing every day. Find other writers with whom you can set goals—or a writing partner with whom you set weekly or monthly word count goals, and exchange drafts for feedback. Be open to feedback and edits, and find people who really “get” your work.
How long have you been writing?
I wrote poems in high school, and started writing seriously in college--mostly stories and essays--but I have always loved writing and kept a journal growing up. I was lucky to attend an elementary school in Minnesota where we were all required to keep an annual school journal with stream-of-consciousness thoughts and bits of stories that our teacher would respond to with a weekly handwritten note, and we were also required to submit a story for an annual publication called The Torch, which really fueled my storytelling sensibilities--and the concept of editing. After college, I was a travel journalist before becoming a novelist.
What is a favorite compliment you have received on your writing?
One of my Croatian-American friends told me that if she didn’t know that I’d started the novel before I met her, she would swear Marina was based on her! That was the highest compliment, since her lived experience as a refugee from Yugoslavia parallels Marina’s experience—and I hope many others who were displaced during that conflict will relate to Marina as well.
If your book were made into a movie, what songs would be on the soundtrack?
Songs from the Croatian singer Severina, who is also mentioned in the novel (one of her songs is playing on the radio during a long drive).
What were the biggest rewards and challenges with writing your book?
Once I had a full draft, I really struggled with rewriting/revising the beginning. I must have done 100+ drafts of the first 50 pages! Of course, seeing the book published, with a cover that I love, was thrilling—and also reading feedback from readers who I don’t know personally who really “got” the book.
In one sentence, what was the road to publishing like?
Challenging, especially if your book doesn’t neatly fit into a category—which is why you should definitely have a strong sense of recent comp titles and where your book would ideally fit on a shelf in a bookstore.
What is one piece of advice you would give to an aspiring author?
Find your ideal readers and create community. Books aren’t written in a vacuum.
On rituals:
Where do you write?
I often write from a home office, but also sometimes from The Writers Room in New York City.
Do you write every day?
I wish I could say I write every day! I hope to become more regular about my writing schedule now that my daughter is in school and I’m doing less travel writing. I do try to make time to write something every day--even if it's journaling. When I'm working in earnest on a project and I'm in the drafting stage, I like to aim for 1,000 words a day.
If you’re a mom writer, how do you balance your time?
This is a difficult question! I struggle every day with balancing motherhood and writing—and all the things that accompany writing a book, like promotion, writing “off the book” essays and articles, doing podcasts, answering Q&As, etc. Any writer moms out there: Please let me know if you’ve discovered the magic formula! I’ve learned to take advantage of every pocket of time in the day, even if it’s to write a couple sentences. And give yourself permission for them to be bad (I battle perfectionism, so that’s a reminder to myself!)
Fun stuff:
Favorite travel spot?
I’ll admit I’m pretty biased: Croatia.
What’s the most courageous thing you’ve ever done?
I think it was pretty courageous that I dropped out of Bowdoin and went to live on my own in Los Angeles to pursue acting.
Any hobbies?
Growing up in Minnesota, I used to be a competitive figure skater. I still like to skate but I’m too out of shape to do jumps anymore! But it’s fun to go skating with my daughter now.
What is something you've learned about yourself during the pandemic?
I wrote the majority of the first draft during the pandemic. It forced me to slow down and limited outside distractions (there are many in NYC where I live!) Novel writing has a different “butt in seat” aspect, since you really need to immerse yourself in the world, which takes time…It’s not the same as writing an article, which is shorter and easier to dip in and out of. In fiction, you’re making up the story and really getting into the characters. For me, it’s a different muscle. This novel was my virtual escape to Croatia during a time when we were all grounded.
What is your favorite thing to do in the summer?
Swim in the Adriatic Sea!
What is a favorite fall holiday tradition (or memory)?
I love Halloween. Now it’s fun to dress up with my daughter and go trick-or-treating in NYC.
What song is currently playing on a loop in your head?
For some reason, “Rockstar” by Post Malone. I saw him perform live recently, and it had been a long time since I’d seen live music, so maybe that’s why it’s stuck in my head.
What is your go-to breakfast item?
Coffee. I can’t function without coffee in the morning—usually a cappuccino or latte.
What is the oldest item of clothing you own?
I used to have a gray T-shirt from my mom that said “Yu-go-sla-vic!” in big red letters, but it bit the dust a few years ago. Probably the oldest item of clothing in my closet now is my wedding dress from 2009, which I never cleaned (the train is still dirty from walking around Dubrovnik’s Old Town, where we were married).
Who was your childhood celebrity crush?
Leonardo DiCaprio! Swoon.
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GUEST POST:
Why I Set My Novel in Croatia
I first encountered Croatia’s island of Pag in 2011 while reporting on a cheese festival for the Croatian Chronicle (it ended with everyone dancing on tables, and I thought I should report on cheese more often!)
I learned that Pag is Croatia’s only divided island, split by a king between two bishops centuries ago. I was captivated by the island’s moonscape terrain, and the idea of that division creating rivalries between the two sides of the island, and also between cheesemakers, since cheese is such an integral part of residents’ livelihoods.
On subsequent visits to Pag, where THE CHEESEMAKER’S DAUGHTER takes place, I encountered many interesting facets of the island, some of which appear in the novel—for example, the Pag triangle, which is rumored to be connected to extraterrestrials; the ancient Lun olive groves on the fingertip of the island, which contain some of the oldest olive trees in the world; and of course, cheesemaking, which is central to the island’s heritage, history, and identity.
Although I researched cheesemaking, since this is fiction, I had fun creating different types of cheese that don’t exist on the island (Grandmother’s Cheese and the fictional cheese on the mainland with donkey’s milk doesn’t exist in Croatia, at least to my knowledge!)
I also enjoyed writing about the island’s division, which isn’t that important in reality today but plays a big role in the novel, since I exacerbate it for dramatic and symbolic effect. The division between two counties, marked by a nondescript drystone wall like all the others on the island, defines northerners and southerners—it’s a universal aspect that can apply to a lot of other places in the world.
The southern part of the island belongs to Dalmatia, which is a different region than the northern part of the island, and that plays a role in identity—how people define themselves culturally and geographically—as well as resulting stereotypes.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Kristin Vuković has written for the New York Times, BBC Travel, Travel + Leisure, Coastal Living, Virtuoso, The Magazine, Hemispheres, the Daily Beast, AFAR, Connecticut Review, and Public Books, among others.
An early excerpt of her novel was longlisted for the Cosmonauts Avenue Inaugural Fiction Prize. She was named a “40 Under 40” honoree by the National Federation of Croatian Americans Cultural Foundation, and received a Zlatna Penkala (Golden Pen) award for her writing about Croatia.
Kristin holds a BA in literature and writing and an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University, and was Editor-in-Chief of Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art.
She grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, and currently resides in New York City with her husband and daughter.
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FOLLOW ON SOCIAL MEDIA:Website: http://kristinvukovic.com/
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I enjoyed the interview very much.
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