A bowl of sour cherries

the long version

"Pushing forty and facing an oversized load of responsibility, a clash of cultures finally causes a Yugoslav-born woman to allow her ailing father to leave her care and check himself into an old folks home in Yugoslavia, unaware that the mounting problems in her native country are heralding civil war. Quickly regretting this decision, she packs herself and her young son and goes to Yugoslavia to reclaim her father, her responsibility, her mooring. Upon her arrival, she discovers she is as estranged from herself as she is from her homeland. Bit by bit, she unearths the past, examining the emotions and conflicts of her family and of the motley, indomitable nation she stubbornly loves."--BOOK JACKET.