Mila Evanovich

Hello everyone!

I hope this summer finds you well. The past several months have been a whirlwind of events and activities, including my recent research at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. There, I dug into archival files centered on World War II, its aftermath, and the mass exile of Serbian refugees, uncovering hundreds of personal letters, government records, and wartime documents that illuminate this eraʼs chaos and upheaval. Over half of these files were in English (thank goodness) while the rest were in French, Serbian, and a bit of German. Iʼve spent much of the summer, so far, reading and translating them. In fact, I brought home 1,060 documents!

One story stood out above the rest, about a man whose father was murdered a few months before his birth on November 8, 1921, in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Tensions had escalated across Europe and the Balkans, and by the time this young man entered high school, he’d joined the Youth Četniks, preparing to defend his country from the Nazis. When the Third Reich invaded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, he and his fellow comrades scurried to the mountains, ready for battle. Records show he luckily escaped in 1945, and by 1949, this young man—Milorad M. Drachkovitch—had earned multiple degrees in politics, receiving recognition as a scholar from the University of Geneva in Switzerland before emigrating to the US.

After stints at Harvard and Berkley, he was appointed senior scholar, and a renowned expert on Communism and the Comintern at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace at Stanford, advising U.S. presidents and international leaders for the next thirty years.

Stay tuned for more about remarkable Serbian figures like Milorad M. Drachkovitch in my story below.

In May 1945, thousands of Yugoslavian refugees, exhausted and desperate, crossed into Italy, hoping for safety. What they found instead shook their very world. After finishing A Place Between Borders, the second installment in the Nikolić Sistersʼ trilogy, I couldnʼt help but picture these border crossings: endless lines of mothers, babies, daughters, resistance fighters, former POWs, and children, each carrying what little they had. Some moments in history feel like endings, but for far too many, this was the beginning of another unimaginable ordeal.

Set in the immediate aftermath of World War II, A Place Between Borders follows Zora Nikolić) Brković and her family as they confront devastating loss, cling to hope, and navigate the harsh political realities of life in displaced persons camps.

Coming this September: A Place Between Borders

With love and gratitude,
Mila