Category: Books

By:  Nick Anastasovski

Tpb  © 2008

520 pages, Large format 245 mm high x 170 mm wide,

ISBN 978-0-9804763-0-9

Price:  CAD$45          USD$35

Although The Contest is a scholarly book detailing the ongoing campaigns to divide and conquer the Macedonian people, it is easy to read.  It is big and a generous book and well researched.

First it was the Ottoman Empire under which Macedonia was colonized by Muslims and many Macedonians converted to Islam.  Then it was Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria as they fought to turn Macedonians into Greeks, Serbs and Bulgarians using State-sponsored teachers, priests, bandits and terrorists.

The Contest for Macedonian Identity examines in detail this fierce competition, and how it was fought at the political, religious, educational, and day-to-day village level. It analyzes Ottoman, Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian, Macedonian and other sources and introduces new and original research by the author from the Bitola region, western Macedonia, and many other parts of ethnic and Ottoman Macedonia. This is a definitive work on the occupation of Macedonia in the modern era and the development and defense of the Macedonian identity.

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By:  Kita Sapurma and Pandora Petrovska

© 1997

Tpb: 168 pages

Price:  $29 CAD        USD   $25

Children of the Bird Goddess, a Macedonian “her-story” is an oral history that spans over 100 years and explores the lives of four generations of Macedonian women from Aegean Macedonia.

Commencing in the 19^thC when Macedonia was under the Ottoman Empire, the family’s story is interwoven with the upheavals of the Balkan wars, Greek takeover and colonization of half of Macedonia, two World Wars, and the Macedonian struggle for independence during the Greek Civil War.  Amid this historical turbulence, the book is a detailed portrayal of Macedonian village life and culture as practiced over centuries.  It offers a personal account of Macedonian women’s culture, giving a woman’s perspective on many of the most important Macedonian customs and rituals passed down from mother to daughter through the generations.

This is also a moving account of political and cultural oppression, and the tragic effects on the family’s lives and fortunes.  This legacy becomes an integral part of Australia’s history, as the family eventually flees Greece and must manage the joys and difficulties of settling in a new land.

This is one of the first autobiographies in English of a woman from Aegean Macedonia.  This is breaking the silence and invisibility of Macedonian women.

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By: Macedonian Welfare Workers’ Network of Victoria (Australia)

© 1999

P/b 232 pgs

Ed:  Victor Bivell

Check:  www.pollitecon.com  to order directly from Australia.

By: Macedonian Welfare Workers’ Network of Victoria (Australia)

P/b: 95 pages  (includes 30 photos & illustrations)

Editor & Translator: Jim Thomev

Price: $18 CAD            USD$14

A book of recollections and reflections from some of the 28,000 Macedonian child refugees who were evacuated from their homes in northern Greece between 1948 and 1949 during the Macedonian struggle for independence in the Greek Civil War.

Five of the oral histories are from child refugees, the sixth from the mother of one of the children.  The six individuals are from the villlages of Bapchor, Lagen, Neret & Krushoradi.  All are now Australian residents.

The stories recount village life before the war, destruction wrought by Greek soldiers and their American and British allies.  There are memories of separation from parents and family, the journey to Eastern Europe, growing up in foreign lands, and their eventual arrival in Australia.  The refugees, now in their 60’s, use their growing maturity and insight to understand the events and experiences that changed the lives of all Macedonians from northern Greece.

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By: Lefa Ognenova-Michova & Kathleen Mitsou-Lazaridis

P/b 112 pages

Price: $20 CAD           USD $15

This is the story of Lefa Ognenova, a girl born in the picturesque mountain village of Neret, in Aegean Macedonia. This the first book published about Neret, which tells about Lefa’s childhood in the village and how she, along with thousands of other Macedonian children, was evacuated during the Macedonian War of Independence in Aegean Macedonia (Greek Civil War from 1947 – 49)

Lefa became a child refugee and grew up far from her family in Hungary, and finally re-joined her parents in Australia, where she was able to build a new life.

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