The Collaborator's Daughter

I was attracted to read The Collaborator's Daughter by its Dubrovnik setting. I have visited this beautiful city, staying on the nearby Koločep island, so I loved remembering our time there and recognising a few places Fran discovers during her explorations. I think, at its heart, The Collaborator's Daughter is a novel about finding oneself and having the confidence to be ourselves, something that comes hard to Fran after a lifetime spent caring for other people. Fran is such an interesting protagonist to spend time with as she reinvents herself. In some ways this could be construed as a coming of age novel and the flutterings of potential-romance friendship are convincingly portrayed.

I would have liked to have spent more time in the wartime storyline although I understand from Eva Glyn's afterword why this wasn't possible. Also, I suppose only having glimpses of Branko and Dragica ourselves allowed me to empathise more strongly with Fran's efforts to uncover what happened to them. That said, Fran's repeated agonising over what she should do for the rest of her life did wear a little thin for me. Thank goodness for Jadran distracting our minds!

While The Collaborator's Daughter wasn't as deeply challenging as the historical fiction I more usually read, I still found it to be a compelling story and there were several moments where I was strongly tempted to investigate a Dubrovnik holiday for myself. I was extremely envious of Fran's extended stay and was captivated by Glyn's evocative depictions of the city and its surrounding islands. Perhaps the ending was telegraphed too soon, but as this novel was as much about Fran finding herself as it was about finding her father, I still very much enjoyed sharing her journey.