Ildikó Nomi lives with her sister and parents in Switzerland. The whole family has (after the residents voted positive) Swiss passports. Nevertheless, they are not nationals - neither in their souls, even in the eyes of the neighbors. They originally come from Serbia. But they are not Serbs, because they come from Vojvodina and belonging to the Hungarian minority. The girls came to Switzerland before they were enrolled in school, So they do not speak once Serbian. Ildikó - the older of the sisters is the main protagonist, tells the story by the family to try to define their identity.
Kocsis The family tries to hard work, their social position in Switzerland to work out - first from Serbia to travel from the parents with various jobs, they try as quickly as possible to create a financial basis, so their daughters can meet . Later the family opened a laundry, then a small café, to finally take on the most representative of the City Café.
go Periodically Kocsis to Vojvodina. Each visit is expected restless and accompanied by a great question - hopefully nothing has changed in the old country! The girls love the country of her childhood, the warm embrace of her grandmother (Mamika), and the large family, the farm and all animals. They also feel Vojvodina as their home, the land of eternal bliss.
disintegrates over the years, the ideal image is always more - the death of Tito, the conversations of her father and uncle about politics, which always end in the alcohol intoxication, the memories of Mamika on in the camp of his grandfather, the persecution and finally the outbreak of the Balkan war shaking the idyllic notions of the girls.
The Balkan conflict is shown only from the international perspective - it lacks details of military operations, but the author tries to represent the sentiments of expatriate Yugoslavs. Every Swiss is the Balkans experts - is to listen and at the same time putting on the polite, indifferent smile of a waitress for Ildikó obnoxious.
life between two worlds, the confrontation with the refugees, the search for his identity and the growing rebellion against the parents, to accept any of the xenophobic attacks oppress, Ildikó. More it is aware of it, that the study of international history and the perfect mastery of the language is far from enough to feel at home in Switzerland and accepted by the Swiss to be. At the same time she realizes that she can use this fact to their advantage.
"flying pigeons" In Abonji describes not only the difficult process of adaptation and integration but also the gradual separation from parents.
Not only the content of the novel can inspire, the language offers. Long, multi-compound sentences, however, lose nothing at ease are the greatest strength of the prose of Abonji. She manages simultaneously refined to write and to create an illusion that one listens to a conversation two friends. Abonjis prose has its own tune and excited with intelligent wit.
My Rating: 5 / 6
Melinda Nadj Abonji, pigeons fly, 315 pages, the young and young
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