By Luan Starova

Translated by Christina E. Kramer’75

The University of Wisconsin Press

Madison, Wis., 2012

Stepping into the past, Luan Starova describes his family’s history under three turbulent regimes—Ottoman, Fascist, and Stalinist—in the 20th century. While simultaneously weaving stories from different points of his parents’ lives between 1926 to 1976, Starova offers a child’s viewpoint of personal relationships in a constantly shifting political situation.

Early in his childhood, Starova and his family fled from Albania to Yugoslav Macedonia as the Ottoman Empire began to collapse. This transition forced Starova’s parents to raise their children in yet another repressive state as they found themselves immersed in Orient and Occident cultures. As a boy, Starova found comfort in spaces such as his father’s library, where he discovers the power books have in not only preserving lost heritage, but also in understanding displacement and identity in a literate culture.

Starova is now a novelist, poet, scholar, diplomat, and literary translator. My Father’s Books is the first volume in his multi-volume Balkan series.