Mila Evanovich

Release Date: September 1, 2026

 
Synopsis

In the harrowing final days of World War II, Zora (Nikolić) Brković ‘s world collapses. She and her family join the desperate exodus of resistance fighters and civilians fleeing the violent, political upheaval sweeping across the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Winding through the cavernous mountains of Croatia and Slovenia on foot, they journey toward the Italian border with the faintest promise of survival. Arriving in Italy in May 1945, they leave behind the only home they have ever known. The British Eighth Army directs them toward Palmanova, where a stunning turn of events there forces them to acknowledge that the freedom they seek is a cruel illusion. Thrust into overcrowded, displaced persons camps, exhausted and starving, they languish, uncertain whether they will ever find a future worth living.

Inside these camps, survival demands everything. Identities fade, uneasy alliances form, and the wounds of war remain. Shuttled to Eboli, Italy, Zora’s family tries to rebuild a fragile microcosm of a Serbian community, only to be uprooted and dispersed to a myriad of camps across Germany. As the world beyond slowly rebuilds, Zora’s hope curdles to dread with a chilling certainty that something is wrong— why are her people being denied the chance to emigrate and begin anew?

 

 

Powerfully rendered, intimate, and scrupulously researched, Mila Evanovich’s latest work about the formidable Serbian people offers a searing testament to endurance, and the cost of being erased by history.