Zoran Drvenkar Die Nacht, in der meine Schwester den Weihnachtsmann entführte The Night My Sister Kidnapped Father Christmas Carlsen Verlag GmbH, September 2005, 264 pp. ISBN 3-551-55419-6 The eight Christmas stories for young readers that make up this delightful book are all penned by ‘Zoran’, the alter ego of the author, who tells the reader that he always wanted to be a writer and that he hopes this book will be the sort that will lie under the Christmas tree and be picked up by grandmothers to read to their grandchildren. For a child of just eight, he has certainly made a fine start. Each of the stories describes a particular Christmas as ‘Zoran’ and his sister Susa grow up. The family are Yugoslavs. Mother, who is usually depicted lighting a cigarette, is from Serbia; Father, an inveterate prankster and yarn-spinner, is Croatian. Now the family are living in a small flat in Berlin, and the book is particularly good in its evocations of the bitterly cold winters of the 1970s and 1980s when even the river froze over. The Christmas celebrations were sociable affairs, with so many relatives visiting that the young narrator feels moved to remark: ‘I think I’ve forgotten who is related to whom’. The international side of the city is also alluded to, in the names of the boy’s best friends, and there is plenty of drama to punctuate the picturesque. In the very first story ‘Zoran’s’ father has run away with another woman and his mother has become unhinged. But when the father comes back the family have what Susa describes as ‘the best Christmas ever’. The boys are high-spirited enough to rival Richmal Crompton’s ‘Just William’, and ghost ships and malevolent ice devils also inhabit these pages, particularly when Aunt Dora of the Parisian hats is in town with her own brand of bed-time stories. What these stories offer is a tribute to a childhood rich in characters, warm-heartedness, emotional conflicts and fun, all encompassed within the fascinating confines of a world within a world. For Yugoslavia is always present, whether in the family’s talk or the dishes coming out of the oven. The author says in an afterword that his book has to do with the shadow and light that is part of every family. Understanding and forgiveness are what are most needed, and this, perhaps, is the most important message of all.