Dispossessed of her vast property on the island of Rab by the Communist authorities of Yugoslavia, 100-year-old Madonna lies on her death bed--finicky, frail, and foul-smelling. Her nurse, Mali, thinks it a miracle that she lives at all. Although their relationship is never made exactly clear, Mali performs his duties with patience and care, as he reflects on their lives, the island, and the country. Set in the borderland between Italy and Croatia, this lyrical novel explores themes of the individual, family, duty, love, memory, religion, and state and conveys emotionally vivid portraits about the passing of a generation and a way of life. This new translation incorporates the author's significant revisions to the text since its original publication.

Slobodan Novak is an award-winning novelist and writer for television and radio. He is a leading author of contemporary Croatian literature and the coauthor of the critical work Two-Hundred Years of Writing in Croatia. Celia Hawkesworth is the author of Ivo Andric: Bridge between East and West and Voices in the Shadows: Women and Verbal Art in Serbia and Bosnia. She is the award-winning translator of The Museum of Unconditional Surrender and The Culture of Lies, both written by Dubravka Ugresic.