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The Fate of the Books
- University of Wisconsin Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
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. ...