“I am profoundly interested in the displacement of persons due to fractious events, such as war, famine, and disease,” says Edmonton-based author Gail Sidonie Šobat about her new historical novel Songs from This and That Country. 

“This novel brought me to investigate my own family’s experience as well as that of other recent immigrants.” Accordingly, Šobat did extensive research on the effects of immigrant intergenerational trauma born of upheaval and forced relocation.

Set in Alberta, Berlin, Istanbul, Italy, Belgrade, and Sarajevo, the story chronicles the emotional journeys of members of an immigrant family. 

The father, Dan, is Serbian, and his long-suffering wife, Luba, is Ukrainian. Their adult daughter Mirjam is close with her mother but often clashes with her father, who suffers from post-traumatic stress due to combat in the Second World War. 

Not only does Dan physically abuse his wife and daughter, but he also continually discourages Mirjam from pursuing a singing career in opera. She eventually moves away to follow her dream, but soon afterwards, takes an unnecessary risk that threatens to derail her ambition.        

Some aspects of this novel are autobiographical. “I am Serbian Canadian and Ukrainian Canadian,” says Šobat.

“My father struggled with anger and likely undiagnosed PTSD all his life, so those elements of the novel are also based on family experience, as is spousal and family violence.” She adds, “Like Mirjam, I, too, am a singer, though not on any international stages.”  

Throughout the novel, the narrative hopscotches back and forth in time. This technique helps to convey Luba and Dan’s pasts, including their youth, courtship, and marriage, as well as Dan’s military service and spotty work history.  

Also interspersed within the narrative is a 14th-century Serbian fairy tale about Sudbina, the daughter of a despot.

“It is my attempt to employ a folktale to reveal layers of intergenerational and centuries-old hatreds and violence. The fairy tale provides a backstory or underpinning to the life of Mirjam in the 20th century.” 

Another key element to the story is music. “Music permeates the novel because Serbs are a musical people,” Šobat says. “My own family is musical, and it made sense that Mirjam and Sudbina be, as well.” 

The music also reflects the form of the novel, which is “operatic in scale and scope.”

As an author of historical fiction, Šobat says that her greatest challenge is the requirement of incessant fact-checking, while realizing you can only tell so much of any historical story. 

“In other words, you have to decide on how much or which variation you will tell,” she says. 

“Ultimately, while set in a variety of times and places, Songs from This and That Country is only one person’s snapshot.” 

Šobat’s target readership is anyone interested in an immigrant family experience and the guilt of a person born from a people who committed genocide – which covers a lot of ground. 

As she observes, “This seems to me, tragically, a tale that never ends.”