SPLAV

‘Funny, warm-hearted and eccentric – a glorious snapshot from a floating world’ Blake Morrison

One night at the end of the 1970s, Mary Ethna Black, a young doctor from Northern Ireland, met Ozren, a young doctor from Yugoslavia. This was in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and a bottle of Johnnie Walker whiskey was involved, as were significant linguistic misunderstandings. He fell in love immediately; she took ten days.
Little did they know then of the many adventures that would comprise a life together. Mary and Ozren married in Belgrade just as the Balkans conflict was heating up. Working as doctors through the war – rarely on the same side – they were often separated. Afterwards, they raised their son and daughter together against a backdrop of devastation and faced landmines and corruption as well as the pressure to produce the best seven-year-old’s birthday party on record.
The family’s adventures have taken them from Bosnia and Serbia to Australia, then back to the Balkans and eventually to London. But they always return to the Splav: their ramshackle barge on the river Sava. This beloved refuge is where the family gather whenever they can, where they swim in summer, invite neighbours to drink coffee on deck, and tell their stories.
So, come on board. You’ll learn how to escape pirates, navigate Belgrade traffic, and raise two expert sailors in a landlocked country. You’ll pick up excellent recipes for šljivovica and meet a ginormous catfish. But above all, you’ll hear a gloriously eccentric and unforgettable tale of family, friends, war and peace – and the true meaning of home.