Drink in the Summer A Memoir of Croatia

Since childhood, Tony Fabijančić has travelled frequently to Yugoslavia and Croatia, the homeland of his father. He spent time with his peasant family in the village of Srebrnjak in the north and escaped to the Adriatic islands in the south where he could break free from the constraints of everyday life. Those two worlds—the north, marked by the haunting saga of family life, its history and material practices, and the south, a place defined by travel and escape—formed the two halves of Fabijančić’s Croatian life. Over time, he observed Srebrnjak become a white-collar weekend retreat, the community of peasants of the 1970s, to which he was first introduced, only a distant memory. From the continental interior of green valleys and plum orchards to the austere and skeletal karst coast, Drink in the Summer is a unique record of a place and people now lost to time, a description of a country’s varied landscapes, and a journey of discovery, freedom, beauty, and love. 

About the Author

Tony Fabijančić is a professor of English at Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland. He is the author of two previous travel books, Croatia: Travels in Undiscovered Country and Bosnia: In the Footsteps of Gavrilo Princip.

Table of Contents

1. Preface
2. Acknowledgements
3. Note on Pronunciation
4. When the Sea Is Bluer — Brač
5. Learning to Fly
6. Drink in the Summer
7. Coda Yugoslavia — Rab
8. Srebrnjak Winter
9. The Woman from Brezje — Pag
10. Transitions, Departures
11. Srebrnjak Mansion — Cres — Vis
12. A Slower Tempo — Hvar
13. Yugonostalgia
14. Brač Revisited
15. Return
16. Works Cited

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). It may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, provided that the original author is credited.