The Cheesemaker's Daughter

by Kristin Vukovic

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Pub Date 6 Aug 2024 | Archive Date 2 Aug 2024

Regalo Press

General Fiction (Adult) | Women's Fiction

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Description

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.

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...

Advance Praise

“The Cheesemaker’s Daughter takes us to Pag, an island where sheep’s milk becomes curds, partners become rivals, exes become new possibilities, and one woman finally becomes who she was meant to be. Deeply researched and fully inhabited, this novel is a thrilling, transformative read.”

—Julia Phillips, bestselling author of Disappearing Earth, finalist for the National Book Award

“Kristin Vuković’s captivating debut novel delves into the intricate tapestry of familial bonds, self-discovery, and web of obligations that entangle so many immigrants. Vuković 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 Vuković 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

“A magical debut, The Cheesemaker’s Daughter is a sensual exploration of cultural identity, loss, and love. Shattered by her broken marriage, thirty-four-year-old Marina, a Yugoslav refugee, leaves her life in New York City and returns to her island home in Croatia, where she becomes entangled in saving her family’s failing cheese factory and legacy. Amid the backdrop of Croatia’s war-torn history, Kristin Vuković conjures up the island’s wild landscape—its glittering sea, sheep-dotted hills, extreme weather, and complex scents of antiquity—with spellbinding beauty.”

—Jessica Brilliant Keener, author of Strangers in Budapest, an Indie Next Pick

“Kristin Vuković’s tender and elegant novel is a tale of coming home and of coming to terms, of filial affection and heartbreak, and of wanting, waiting, and fierce island winds. It’s a story about Croatia, but it’s meant for all of us, wherever we are, because the story at its heart is one about the struggle to belong and to heal.”

—James Sturz, author of Underjungle

“Kristin Vuković knows that cheese contains multitudes: history, identity, loss, and love. In The Cheesemaker’s Daughter, she weaves a richly delicious story about one woman’s return to her family’s cheesemaking factory on Pag, a Croatian island, to save her family’s cheese—and then, herself. I couldn’t put it down.”

—Hannah Howard, Amazon bestselling author of Plenty: A Memoir of Food and Family