The latest novel by Milka Kajganić, The Wounds of the Refugees, is the last part of the trilogy on the Kordun Krajina people’s biblical passions. The first two novels that have recently been published, The Stories of a Kordun Old Man and The Storm in the Eyes of the Suffering, depict the Kordun people anguish and their journey between the devil and the deep blue sea and the latest one is a sequel to their suffering and hardship away from home and their living with the stigma of being a refugee and homeless.

In the first novel of the trilogy, The Stories of a Kordun Old Man, Milka Kajganić gave us a confession of an honest and benevolent old man which could be a framework for a tale of any Serb from Kordun, namely Vojna Krajina. Grandpa Simat experienced wars, misery, hunger, misfortune and exile… All of which could be found in any Krajina person’s biography. In this novel, Milka Kajganić takes us vertically down the Serbian history at the time of the great migrations and wars between Turkey and Austria-Hungary. The narrative goes on all the way up to the end of the twentieth century when the question of Kordun Serbs survival and migration was more crucial than it had been four hundred years ago.

The Storm in the Eyes of the Suffering is a novel about the horrors of war, the disbelief, fear, lost souls, torn roots, humiliation… It is a novel about the suffering of a people on a biblical scale. It’s Krajina’s Guernica, but in writing. At a first glance it resembles an encyclopaedia of bitter human experiences about the hardship, misery and evil…

The third novel, The Wounds of the Refugees, is a story of the latest development and hardship of the surviving characters of the first two tales. New characters appear on the stage and they are overwhelmed by uncertainty, fear, bitterness but also the feeling of self-importance – which is a characteristic of proud and brave people. They are trying to get by using all means necessary, making sure they don’t cross lines of morality, all in order to survive and adjust to regular life.

Kordun has had quite a rough and turbulent past, it has suffered pogrom, seen all sorts of trials…Unfortunately, its ill faith was only bitterly obvious in August 1995. Hopefully, this was its peak! Their thousand-year-long life they lived, leaving behind deep multi-layer trails of culture and history which has become an inseparable part of our (and European) spiritual life – we know so (una)shamefully little, which is unforgivable. Still, this novel by Milka Kajganić might just earn Krajina Serbs some honourable mention in literary life! Whatever receives its identity through literature, in this time of brutal eradication and scarce flicker of self-awareness, is given a chance to last and reach the shores of everlasting. The three books on Kordun misfortune and existence by Milka Kajganić are a reflection of their part of history respectfully.

When faced with hardship, Milka’s heroes are finding their own ways to succeed, nothing is unreachable for them, they come to each other’s aid just as they always have in the homeland where they have been exiled from. They are cast aside, rejected, cheated and pushed into the abyss… Despite all the sufferings, the characters remain dignified, proud and, most of all, ready to take on new challenges. They are typical Kordun people, of clever minds and great sensitivity, empathy and feeling home-sick for their thresholds they have been forcefully taken from. Even though they were forsaken and left to their own devices in the world that is filled with doubt and distrust, they are convinced that there are no burdens that life could throw at them that they are unable to take on. Their faith is endless, their self-esteem is unabashed. They are passionate. They seek justice. Their reactions are swift and impulsive, they are true descendants of formerly well-known border soldiers. They make their decisions quickly and they stick to them and are reluctant to change their opinions. The courage they show when defending their ideals is unmistakable.

They are somewhat sceptical. It is difficult to win over their trust, but once you have it, it lasts forever unless misused, and that’s when you turn them into an adversary.

They find themselves in the world of different customs, mentality, principles…It’s a world, as described by a Kafka’s character, that has no soul and knows no God, and even though they are faced with inner-suffering stillness, they strive to maintain their pride and dignity. The new environment is filled with the unknown and unfamiliar perception they are unaccustomed with. With their deeply-rooted experience, they manage to surpass all the obstacles by depending on one another which is how they used to live in the land they were exiled from.

Regardless of being removed from their roots and cast into an unfamiliar world, they maintain to nurture their mentality, customs, language, mutual empathy and they succeed in this by keeping their basic moral characteristics – pride and dignity. Milka is not too obvious in emphasizing those traits of her characters, she doesn’t suggest this to be a general norm, but this is something that could be concluded from their behaviour, points of view and opinions.

No matter how well they manage to elevate themselves from the situation, Milka’s characters find it difficult to overcome the feeling of being aliens no matter where they are, and that they are to be in that state for an indefinite amount of time. One of the characters, when asked by his son how they are so easily recognizable as refugees even though this is not written all over them, replies “I believe it is the language, and our proud posture. We are not easy to bend.”

The main protagonist, Mićo Lajić, a boy driven by misfortune to grow up fast and who learns that a man who is deprived of his roots can overcome this only by his inner strength and his mind, dedicates himself to his studies and his future calling. His moral and psychological analysis of the situations he is in are impressive. His grandpa Simat’s teachings have helped him in the discovery and finding the right attitude in those situations.

The narrative is spontaneous, as if watched on the screen. The events are full of twists, images and variety. Milka manages this in quite a skilful way by presenting us with dialogues in the language of her misfortunate characters native land. The dynamics are apparent even when they are having mundane conversations.

And the dialogue is plentiful in The Wounds of the Refugees and they are poised, without unnecessary emotional discharge. They cover a number of topics. They are thorough and brisk. They are fast-paced and sometimes they are conveyed through someone’s eyes or gestures. They are deep and occasionally one can feel a certain amount of sarcasm in them. If we analyse deeper, we can notice their metaphorical sense that comes from the realisation that they have been tricked and then left to their own devices. Nonetheless, a Kordun man is open and simple. They have used conversations to treat all that hurts. This is the source of Milka’s skills to make the dialogues in the novel moderate and spontaneous but interesting.

The Wounds of the Refugees is a difficult but optimistic novel. The difficulty comes from the fact that we have been through thick and thin. The optimism comes from the fact that it inspires hope that beauty is possible; all it takes is for one to find a loophole for the light to sneak in and to be persistent in approaching the light.

The novel’s special allure comes from the ever-present atmosphere of Kordun, no matter where the events take place, and it is reflected in the way of thinking, the language, customs and even cuisine. Milka has managed to wrap it all up so the smell of Kordun could be felt everywhere, but not as something obvious, but as something beautiful which has been missing from the place where the novel’s protagonists are. Even though they are overwhelmed by the struggle to survive, the characters of the novel The Wounds of the Refugees are like tea bags. Wherever you place them, their scent and beauty are spread around.

A reader who reads all three novels dedicated to Kordun’s misfortune will form such an image of the land that they would wish to visit it, no matter where they are, not so much for its beauties, but for the people who now have been dispersed all around the world carrying it around in their hearts. Such a wonderful image of the Kordun’s greatest treasure, the people, has been painted in her own way and shared with the world by Milka Kajganić.

An review by Mihajlo Orlović