Balkan Rhapsody
I originally took this book for review out a sense of duty to my late Bulgarian grandfather, but I was quickly drawn in to this fascinating and absorbing fictionalised biography of the author’s grandmother Maria, here appearing as the main character, Miriam.
The story opens in interwar Bulgaria in the port of Burgas, where Miriam lives with her fierce Greek mother Theotitsa, her taciturn Bulgarian father Todor, and her dreamy and enigmatic younger sister Mila. There are also two brothers, Boris and Pencho, who play minor roles. We are never told how much of the action is true, but that does not matter.
Bulgaria is a more multicultural nation than is generally realised, and it was even more so in the first half of the 20th century. In Burgas, Bulgarians, Greeks, Turks, Armenians, and Sephardic Jews live side by side, but do not really interact.
The stability of Miriam’s family is rocked when she takes up with the Turk Ahmed, who runs a lemonade stall. Neither her family nor his can face the idea of a religiously mixed couple. Miriam and Ahmed face not only hostility from their relatives, but also from their neighbours in Burgas, where the news of this mismatch rapidly becomes common knowledge, and Miriam is soon bombarded by verbal abuse in the streets wherever she goes.
The solution seems to be a move to Istanbul, where they start a family of their own, but even more stress and tragedy await them. There is not really an ending, but Miriam moves on, facing the future with her indomitable strength. The author occasionally holds imaginary conversations with her long-dead relatives, who have been so prominent in the story.
It’s been many years since I read a novel that I did not want ever to end.
