Sing to Me (Jelena Curic, WestWords)

Jelena Curic’s debut novel Sing to Me follows drinking, smoking and womanising anti-hero Pero Petrović on a reluctant hero’s journey to confront family secrets, betrayal and the legacy of his war-torn homeland. In 1980, former musician Pero, a Croatian immigrant in Sydney, finds himself caught between two lives. As his mother’s health deteriorates, Pero returns home to Croatia, hoping to uncover the truth about his family’s past. But his father – a former fascist soldier, irrevocably shaped by World War II – refuses to speak to him. Pero travels across Yugoslavia, from Lika to Sisak and the glass-smashing, music-filled bars of Zagreb, determined to piece together the story his father won’t tell. The novel doesn’t shy away from Pero’s deeply flawed worldview – one marked by sexualised misogyny and gendered expectations, which, while true to the character, are rarely counterbalanced by fully realised female voices. Likewise, Pero’s friendship with Bepo, a Romani musician, thoughtfully touches on the historical persecution of the Romani people under the Ustaše regime. Yet the narrative ultimately positions Bepo’s suffering as part of Pero’s personal reckoning – a framing that some readers may view as limited. Music threads the story together, and the way Curic writes about it is a delight. Sing to Me is a vivid, warm-hearted tapestry of healing set against a backdrop of war and trauma. For fans of Shankari Chandran’s Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens. 

Books+Publishing reviewer: Tina Cartwright is a Melbourne-based writer and educator, living on unceded Wurundjeri and Bunurong lands. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

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