Colour of My Heart
Autobiography
Colour of My Heart is a starkly honest, often harrowing account of the human spirit’s struggle with and ultimate triumph over adversity. Set initially in rural Bosnia, formerly part of Tito’s Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia, and later Australia, Stacy Nicholson crafts a deeply personal, bleak, yet at times charming recollection of her life and its many tumultuous challenges.
One of four children Stacy, the daughter of austere parents who worked the land, sets out the gritty realities of poverty and endless toil in a world that often lacked any compassion or real warmth. Her family’s daily struggle to survive provides a grim backdrop to both their own personal struggles with one another, and the sense of alienation and fear that too frequently afflicted Stacy’s difficult childhood. Village life among the farming community of Bosnia was very far from idyllic, but what peace did prevail there was shattered by the horrors and atrocities of the Bosnian War, which so tragically tore the family apart.
After the war the family eventually settled as refugees from religious persecution in Australia where Stacy, by nature hardworking and diligent, started a family with her Bosnian husband, achieved professional success and for the first time found love, only for tragedy to strike again. Trapped in a loveless marriage and afflicted by ongoing family strife, Stacy succumbed to a crippling mental illness that again found her isolated and abandoned by those she loved most, her own family.
In many ways, this is both an idyllic and a page-turning story of girlhood on a farm, and also a much darker story of complicated, difficult family dynamics that intensify as Stacy grows up. Ultimately, it becomes a story of survival under the bleakest of circumstances when Stacy’s own brain turns against her. In general, the Stacy character is deeply endearing and lovable, from her rebellious streak and adventurous spirit to her more vulnerable desires – to be pretty, to feel like a princess, to be loved.
I like the episodic nature of the story.
— Kerry Cullen (editor)