Forbidden Bread: A Memoir
SynopsisPlot
Forbidden Bread is an unusual love story that covers great territory, both geographically and emotionally. The author leaves behind a successful career as an American financial analyst to pursue Ales Debeljak, a womanizing Slovenian poet who catches her attention at a cocktail party. The story begins in New York City, but quickly migrates, along with the author, to Slovenia. As she struggles to forge an identity in her new home, Slovenia itself undergoes the transformation from a communist to a capitalist society. A complicated language, politically incorrect ethnic jokes, and old-fashioned sexism are just a few of the challenges Debeljak faces on her journey. Happily, she marries her poet and comes to love her new husband's family as well as the fast-disappearing rural traditions of this beautiful country.
Story
About this book
Erica Johnson Debeljak was working as a financial analyst in New York City when she met Ales Debeljak, a Slovenian poet, at a cocktail party. What followed was a decision to leave behind her American career and relocate to Slovenia, a small country on the edge of the Alps that was itself in the middle of a profound transition from a communist system to a market economy. Forbidden Bread is her memoir of that crossing, both geographic and personal.
In Slovenia, the author faces the practical difficulties of building a life in a foreign place: learning a complex language, navigating unfamiliar social expectations, and adjusting to attitudes about gender roles that differ sharply from those she grew up with. The book follows her relationship with Ales and her gradual connection to his family and their rural traditions, many of which were already fading during the years she describes. Ethnic tensions and old political divisions surface in everyday conversation, giving the memoir a layer of historical context that runs alongside the personal story.
Slovenia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, and the country Debeljak arrived in was still defining itself as a new state. Her account places one marriage and one household against that broader background of national change.
