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The Girl Who Left: From Croatia to the Canefields

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The Girl Who Left: From Croatia to the Canefields

By: Debra Gavranich
Narrated by: Ella Watson Russell
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About this listen

From Croatia to the Canefields.

Marija's idyllic early childhood on the beautiful Croatian island of Korčula is brutally disrupted by the invasion of the Italians and then the Nazis in 1941, bringing death and destruction. The devastation has left families struggling to survive years after the war has ended.

In 1950 an opportunity arrives for 17-year-old Marija to escape the hunger and despair all around her by committing herself to a complete stranger in faraway North Queensland, through a proxy marriage. Taking the plunge, she leaves her family and friends, her culture, and everything she has ever known, to sail 12,000 km to a future in a land where she knows nothing and no one, whose language she doesn't speak. Is it a chance for a better life? Will her husband be a good man? Will she ever see her family again?

This is the true story of an incredibly courageous young woman who risks all in her quest to escape a still-traumatized Europe.

©2021 Wild Dingo Press (P)2022 Spineless Wonders Audio Marriage
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Thank you for this story. Helps us to appreciate the amazing lives we have here in Australia.
Thank you for Maria’s daughter and extended families for opening up and sharing Maria’s life with us. It has been a gift to read.

Our lives in Australia are quite untouched compared to many parts of the world

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Very good book. Perhaps some small inaccuracies with the harshness of the Yugoslav government in regards to Catholicism, but that's the nature of memory

Fantastic Migrant Story

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.