My Father’s Books

The Fate of the Books

10 The Fate of the Books Ha­ bent sua fata li­ belli. Of all the tan­ gible ­ things that re­ mained in the world at the end of my­ father’s life, a pos­ sible proof of the lost past is his books. It is also pos­ sible that one of the se­ crets of my ­ parents’ dur­ able, har­ mo­ ni­ ous mar­ riage was my ­ mother’s ­ good-natured en­ cour­ age­ ment and sup­ port of my ­ father’s love for his books and her trans­ for­ ma­ tion into a kind of holy guar­ dian of his li­ brary. It is, in fact, from the pages of my ­ father’s mov­ able li­ brary that the his­ tory of my fam­ ily, con­ structed by my par­ ents, can most­ clearly be read and under­ stood. ­ Wherever we were ­ driven by the path of mi­ gra­ tions and the in­ stinct for fam­ ily sur­ vi­ val, my ­ father’s books ac­ com­ pa­ nied us. A new book was like a new­ born in the fam­ ily, with its own place in our ­ family’s life, or like a new foot­ path that al­ lowed us to walk yet far­ ther along ­ life’s long road. Dur­ ing the ­ family’s fre­ quent mi­ gra­ tions, dur­ ing the fre­ quent­ changes of Bal­ kan bor­ ders, which often fa­ tally and trag­ i­ cally split the des­ ti­ nies of in­ di­ vid­ u­ als, fam­ i­ lies, and na­ tions, we left every­ thing be­ hind ex­ cept the books. The books also be­ friended us in those mo­ ments when there was only ­ enough time for life it­ self to be saved, as if hid­ den on one of their pages was the proph­ ecy of the ­ family’s sal­ va­ tion. ...