Tanja Tuma

Tito's Legacy Tanja Tuma

Tito's Legacy is the second part of the Balkan Trilogy, Tanja's epic homage to the passionate people of former Yugoslavia. Winds of Dalmatia, the first book, was published in 2013. Like Tanja herself, the scarred and tragic protagonists in Winds of Dalmatia survive the Yugoslav wars during the 1990s and continue their destiny in Tito's Legacy. Again, we meet Paula Peric, daughter of Maria, an entrepreneur and hotel owner with a shady past, and Jovan, a Serbian commander during the Bosnian War. After surviving cancer and her parents' death, Paula pursues her studies in Ljubljana, where she meets Matej Nemec. They soon become best friends. The son of a notorious tycoon, young Matej can't help but have ridiculously high moral standards. Through his writing, he brings the history of Slovenia and Istria to life - from the prehistoric pile dwellers on the Ljubljana Marshes to Baroque polymath Baron Valvasor and the first known vampire, Jure Grando, to Comrade Tito and his famous guests, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, on Brijuni. In his quest for truth, Matej stumbles over some horrible evidence. He loses his money and standing in society, only to find his humanity as a drifter in the sordid dregs of a big city.