Running Away to Home: Our Family's Journey to Croatia in Search of Who We Are, Where We Came From, and What Really Matters [Hardcover]

Jennifer Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 11, 2011

A middle class, Midwestern family in search of meaning uproot themselves and move to their ancestral village in Croatia

“We can look at this in two ways,” Jim wrote, always the pragmatist. “We can panic and scrap the whole idea. Or we can take this as a sign. They’re saying the economy is going to get worse before it gets better. Maybe this is the kick in the pants we needed to do something completely different. There will always be an excuse not to go…”

And that, friends, is how a typically sane middle-aged mother decided to drag her family back to a forlorn mountain village in the backwoods of Croatia.

So begins the author’s journey in Running Away to Home. Jen, her architect husband, Jim, and their two children had been living the typical soccer- and ballet-practice life in the most Middle American of places: Des Moines, Iowa. They overindulged themselves and their kids, and as a family they were losing one another in the rush of work, school, and activities. One day, Jen and her husband looked at each other–both holding their Starbucks coffee as they headed out to their SUV in the mall parking lot, while the kids complained about the inferiority of the toys they just got–and asked themselves: "Is this the American dream? Because if it is, it sort of sucks."

Jim and Jen had always dreamed of taking a family sabbatical in another country, so when they lost half their savings in the stock-market crash, it seemed like just a crazy enough time to do it. High on wanderlust, they left the troubled landscape of contemporary America for the Croatian mountain village of Mrkopalj, the land of Jennifer's ancestors. It was a village that seemed hermetically sealed for the last one hundred years, with a population of eight hundred (mostly drunken) residents and a herd of sheep milling around the post office. For several months they lived like locals, from milking the neighbor's cows to eating roasted pig on a spit to desperately seeking the village recipe for bootleg liquor. As the Wilson-Hoff family struggled to stay sane (and warm), what they found was much deeper and bigger than themselves.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Running Away to Home:

 

"In thinking about her suburban life, epitomized by refereeing two arguing kids in a Target shopping cart whilst balancing a Starbucks, Wilson thinks, “if this is the American dream it kinda sucks.” To refocus her family and connect with ancestors, she uproots her Iowa household and relocates to the mountainous, two-road village of Mrkopalj, Croatia. For the next four months, they adjust to the Balkan speed of life, in which rooms scheduled for completion in four days remain unfinished for weeks, meals of meat come with a side of meat, a language of consonants is marked with guttural accents, and they discover what they’d lost in the melee of their breakneck American lives: family. Wilson’s memoir isn’t so much about assimilating to Croatian culture as it is about finding family and, therefore, acceptance in unlikely places. A fun-filled, revealing peek into the Croatian countryside nevertheless, it will be enjoyed by travelogue lovers and admirers of Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence (1989) and Frances Maye’s Under the Tuscan Sun (1996).—Katharine Frank"
—Booklist

"Many Americans long for a family trip around the world or a stint abroad. Travel writer Wilson, her architect husband, and their two small children spent a family sabbatical in Mrkopalj, Croatia, an unlikely destination for most folks but the birthplace of Wilson's great-grandparents. Wilson and family arrived in the village speaking little Croatian but soon became part of the community. She relates how they explored the area, tracked down distant relatives, and became immersed in the traditions of daily life. In this village, people grow a year's worth of potatoes, survive on sausage and alcohol, and work together to chop wood, roast sheep, celebrate, and survive. The scars of hardship and wars are ever present in Mrkopalj, and Wilson reflects on how different her life has been thanks to her relatives who came to America. What she finds in Mrkopalj is a firm connection to family: her own, those who left, and those who remained. VERDICT This thoughtful, amusing tale reads like a novel and will have wide appeal. —Melissa Stearns, Franklin Pierce Univ. Lib., Rindge, NH"
—Library Journal

“The author’s voice is consistently infused with an energetic spunkiness, complimented with passages of sage introspection…[an] appealing travelogue of discovery and renewal.”
—Kirkus Book Reviews

"In her funny and heartfelt memoir, she packs up her husband and two young children from Des Moines, Iowa, with the plan to live a simpler, more connected life in the ancestral home in Croatia and to learn about her immigrant story."
—Publisher's Weekly

“Running Away to Home is a sweet journey of reconnection. Wilson and her family move from Big Box America to her ancestral home in Croatia, and in the process become that most precious of things, the truly connected family.”
—Janine Latus, New York Times bestselling author of If I Am Missing or Dead: A Sister’s Story of Love, Murder, and Liberation

"Jennifer Wilson travels and writes with heart and pluck. With her husband and kids in tow, she pushes past all her comfort zone and shows us that adventure is a worthy and rewarding family pursuit. Filled with memorable characters and lovely epiphanies, her tale inspires us to rethink how we define `family’ and `home.’ "
—Jeannie Ralston, author of The Unlikely Lavender Queen: A Memoir of Unexpected Blossoming

“I like the heart and good humor of Jennifer Wilson: she has given us a book about the ways sense of place is heightened by displacement and the most enlightening scraps of history must be coaxed from the darkest corners.”
—Michael Perry, author of Population: 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time  

About the Author

JENNIFER WILSON is an award-winning writer who has chronicled her travels, both epic and around the corner, in National Geographic Traveler, Gourmet, Esquire, Midwest Living, Better Homes & Gardens, Frommer’s Budget Travel, Parents, and Disney Family Fun. Running Away to Home was awarded Best Nonfiction Book of 2011 by the American Society of Journalists and Authors.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (October 11, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312598955
• ISBN-13: 978-0312598952
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #727,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #64 in Books > Travel > Europe > Bosnia, Croatia & Herzegovina

More About the Author

Jennifer Wilson was born in Colfax, Iowa. She's been a rock writer (favorite interview: Tom Jones), reporter (favorite interview: Thom Jones), high school English teacher, Big Band radio DJ, and newspaper editor. Her work has appeared in Esquire, National Geographic Traveler, Gourmet, NPR's All Things Considered, Better Homes & Gardens, No Depression, Traditional Home and many others. Running Away to Home received Best Nonfiction Book of 2011 from the American Society of Journalists and Authors. www.jennifer-wilson.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Looking Back While Searching For Roots October 5, 2011

By D_shrink VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

The author along with her two kids and husband take a year off from their regular routine in Des Moines, Iowa and move to Croatia for that year to find the author's maternal ancestors and find her roots for that side of her family.

The narrative involves life in the small town of Mrkopalj, Croatia located in the mountainous foothills about an hour drive from the Adriatic Sea. The author does a fine job of weaving her family's history into the general history of the country and the hundreds of years of war of the people of Croatia and much of what used to be called Yugoslavia. She does get emotional in the telling of the story at times; but that simply made the story come alive. Her overall account was generally very humorous in a self-deprecating manner while still maintaining an intelligent patois that kept one's interested in continuing with her adventure.

An example of some of the self-deprecating humorous lines are: "My olive-skinned mom rarely mentioned she was descended from thick accented immigrants with full mustaches on both the men and women." At another point in which she was discussing some magazine articles. "Articles like that are written by interns in New York, barely old enough to vote, who will conduct their entire adulthood sleeping around like Tri Delts."

In another place in describing the town or village of MRKOPALJ, the author said, "There was very little space, but it lived bigger than it was." A descriptive clause I thought was quite poignant. She later writes, "Who knew how long our togetherness would last. Children were born to leave. Parents were born to make sure they were prepared when they did." And then within the last few pages of the book she wrote, "I had been a fool to think this trip was only about my family. It had been about the whole family - those who left, those who stayed, and all those connective tissues on either side of the journey my great grandparents made."

The book was definitely not the typical travel guide but more of an adventure that many of us would like to make, but realistically few will. Perhaps we can enjoy the experience vicariously through her eyes and telling.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The extravagance of simplicity October 13, 2011

By PT Cruiser TOP 50 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

This looked like an interesting book when I ordered it but I didn't realize just how captivating it would turn out to be. Jennifer Wilson has a way of describing places, people and situations that draws you in and makes you feel as if you are traveling alongside her and sharing her experiences. I was really touched by her descriptions of the people and the culture in Mrkopalj, Croatia, a small village in the Gorski Kotar region, south of Delnice and some 50 km east of Rijeka. It's pronounced MER-ko-pie, in case you're tangling your tongue in knots trying to figure out how to pronounce it. Sometimes true stories like this can become a little boring, especially when they take place in an area with a pace that is so much slower than what most of us experience in America, but Wilson's colorful descriptions and her sometimes humble openness about her feelings was very engaging and drew me right in. I couldn't wait to sit down with this book each night, when our home was quiet, and experience Mrkopalj with her.

Wilson and her architect husband, Jim and her two children, Sam and Zadie decide to travel to Mrkopalj and live there for four months to see the place where her ancestors came from and to try and find the graves of her great grandparents and see the home and area where they lived. What they discovered was a world very different from their lives in Iowa where their middle class existence seemed extravagant compared to an aging, small village in Croatia. Living arrangements were challenging at first but as you turn the pages you begin to see her family settling in, discovering people that shared their roots and even though they didn't speak Croatian, and only a few people there knew more than a few words of English, they learned that communication goes way beyond simple words. What started out as, "OMG, what did I get us into?" morphs to, "I guess I can learn to sleep on this futon bed." And, "This dorm room is really kind of cozy."

Her children seemed to adapt too, although eating lamb or a pig that they saw walking around an hour before was pretty shocking. Rather than spending hours watching TV or playing with video games, her son learned to value friendships and the outdoors and spending time with his family. Her daughter found friends right away with the family whose home they rented a floor from. As time went on they not only discovered their roots but discovered how much they meant to each other.

I had to look up Mrkopalj on the internet, not only to see a map, but to see if I could find some photos of the places she describes in her book. I was delighted to find several youtube videos that the author posted as well as many posted by other people. This being such a small town I was able to see many of the people she wrote about just by doing a youtube search for Mrkopalj. Most of them I couldn't understand since they're speaking Croatian, but it was fun to see all these people and places I just read about. Watching Robert Starcevic playing his guitar was like seeing a rock star! Two thumbs up for this touching and entertaining book!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Roots: The Iowa-Balkan states version October 8, 2011

By Corinne H. Smith TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Travel writer and native Iowan Jennifer Wilson was prompted by the death of a relative to explore part of her maternal ancestry. One hundred years ago, her great-grandparents Valentin Radosevic and Jelena Iskra immigrated to Iowa from Mrkopalj, Croatia. Since no living family members knew much about the old folks or the old homeland, it seemed to be a no-brainer that the writer/reporter of the bunch could ferret out all of the personal answers that she craved. She took off on an early reconnaissance mission to Croatia.

As the parents of two small children, Jennifer and her husband Jim Hoff were simultaneously beginning to sour on the daily demands of contemporary American life. They decided (sight unseen) to take enough time off from their regular lives to immerse their family in Mrkopalj for four months. Temporarily relocating to the Radosevic-Iskra hometown would bring them closer to understanding their roots, and would perhaps help them return to an old-fashioned, simpler existence.

As follows with most fish-out-of-water stories, the return "home" was a challenging one. Living arrangements didn't pan out as expected. The meat on the dinner table came from real-life animals on the nearby farms or from the woods, the children quickly learned. The main occupations of many of the village adults appeared to be drinking and smoking. Communication in English, Croatian, or a hybrid "Croglish" with the residents was sporadic at best. The irony of this true tale is that veteran traveler Jennifer was the one in the family who had the most difficulties acclimating to the unfamiliar surroundings. Gradually she was able to join the others in appreciating the "extravagance of simplicity" found in mountainous and very rural Mrkopalj. It accepted her in return. The question remained: How could a woman trace her genealogy in a foreign land when she didn't know who had the records and she couldn't speak the language?

This is an entertaining book, made even more intriguing by the fact that it is true. Some readers will no doubt find themselves contemplating their own varied origins (instead of that of the Radosevics and Iskras in Croatia) and those choices, challenges, circumstances, and environments that coalesced to shape their own lives. Even if your ancestors didn't come from Eastern Europe or from one of the Balkan states, you should enjoy accompanying this family on their own adventures. Be sure to bring an empty bag for the harrowing drive along those treacherous mountain roads. You'll need it.

[This review was based on seeing an Advance Reading Copy of the text.]