A House in Istria Book

Istria, island off Trieste, has repeatedly shifted hands between Italy and Croatia.

A native of Istria lives in a small village with her foreign husband. But her "sweetiepie" becomes obsessed with an empty house, scrapes his hands climbing over its wall, refuses to understand why it can't be his.

Long conversations ensue about nothing much, negotiations of native vs. foreign in the banal details of potatoes and post office jobs.

This everydayness earns a profundity about language and translation: "I'm completely at your mercy, my sweetie keeps saying, he doesn't realize that each language defends itself against experiences made in another one."