Review: "The Cheesemaker's Daughter" by Kristin Vuković

The Cheesemaker's Daughter by Kristin Vuković
Published August 2024 via Regalo Press
★★★

Marina has lived in the United States for half her life, but when her father asks for help—a first—she drops everything to return to Croatia to help her parents save their struggling cheese factory. Croatia is and isn't as she remembers it; it's been years since Marina was home long enough to sink into the rhythms of Croatian island life, and cheesemaking has never been her future. But now she must decide: stay, or go? What parts of her past and present are destined to stay or become her past, and what parts are destined to become her future?

I've read very little about Croatia—very little fiction set in contemporary southeastern (or eastern, or central) Europe, for that matter; that's less by choice and more because I've found it difficult to find the contemporary, non-noir, non-war fiction I'm after. And on that count, The Cheesemaker's Daughter delivers. Marina's life on Pag is quiet, but it's full—family and old friends and ghosts from her past; tradition sitting alongside modern conveniences (and inconveniences). Plot-wise, this is strong work; Croation relationships and work struggles and personal struggles layer on top of each other, and it's not clear until the end how most things will work out—there are many directions the story could take and still feel realistic.

Writing-wise, I think this could have used an intense round of line editing. The word knew appears 99 times in the book and the word felt 180 times, and although obviously not all of those are directly about Marina (the POV character), the majority are, and I don't want to be told what she knows and feels; I want to experience those things with her. It left me a bit disconnected from Marina and thus from the book even as I kept reading to find out how things would go.

It's a fairly quiet book, all things considered—in a good way, but one for those who don't mind books that unfold in their own sweet time. I'd be interested to read more in similar settings.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.