Acknowledgements

From 1969 on, my father took us to what was then still Yugo-slavia and, through his own drive to go home, sparked my interest in Croatia for the rest of my life. In later years, while working on this book, I also travelled with him to some of the islands and had long talks about the past. My son, Lucas, stuck it out with the two of us, even though our trips were eventful in the wrong ways at times, and probably too uneventful at others. My wife shared her memories of her youth in Yugoslavia, applied her cogent editorial skills to parts of the book and set me right, as she always does, on all my mistakes. Numerous chapters were edited by my mother, Ursula Fabijančić, who offered several poignant memories. Thank you to Renata Schellenberg for generously going over an early version of the manuscript and to Robyn Anderson for scanning slides and old photographs. Thanks also to Denise Fabijančić, Natasha Fabijančić, Pamela Holway, Tonček Juranko, Peter Midgley, Lois Sherlow, and Goran Vojković for their suggestions and commentary. Finally, I want to recognize my family in Croatia for taking me into their homes year after year, for which I can never adequately repay them.