'What is ‘home’? Can a migrant cease to be a stranger and feel ‘at home’ in her new country? What does it take for the newcomer to become an inhabitant? Almost Home addresses these complex questions through the story of an often troubled personal life.
The author’s journey began in Belgrade, the city where she was born and which she left in 1951, when she was nineteen yeas old. The youthful hopes, aspirations and half-baked yet strongly held views that were formed in her birthplace had to be readjusted to a new and alien world through a process which was frequently painful and, for quite some years, very difficult. Mira’s memories of this time are related in a personal way, their connections made in terms of emotional relevance and thematic links, rather than through straightforward chronology. This renders her memoir vividly individual. The story evokes for the reader the sadness of displacement and loss, the author’s initial mistrust of an unfamiliar world, the challenges of adjustment, the ups and downs of love and friendship, and, finally, with the acceptance of her new domicile as a kind of home, her growth into maturity. Although a subjective account, Almost Home contains sharp insights into the circumstances of the period. Their personal relevance renders the author’s observations and reflections as engaging as is Mira’s own remarkable story.' (Publication summary)
