SPLAV

''Funny, warm-hearted and eccentric - a glorious snapshot from a floating world'' Blake Morrison

For miles and miles, rafts are moored along the Sava in Belgrade, ranging from small weekend houses to restaurants, and massive night clubs, known locally as MacSplavs. For over two decades, Mary, her husband Ozren and their two children have owned one of these barges, made from the top of a century-old ship and recycled river crane flotation tanks, kept afloat by 1300 naked ladies. More of an Ark than a house, the splav shelters an intriguing cast of river folk, dice snakes, a gigantic fictional catfish and a flock of guard geese. The family cross the flooded road to their splav in spring, jump off the deck on a hot summer day, watch swans train their cygnets every autumn, and wrap up warm as snow falls in December. Rivers are neither stable nor predictable and as the city develops, the mooring is under threat. Now, Mary is racing to immortalise their beloved floating home before the extraordinary stories are lost forever.

From how to raise junior sailing champions in a land-locked country and turning a tanker into a pirate ship for a children''s party, to saying farewell to your father''s World War II pistol by throwing it overboard and founding the world-famous Senjak Chicken Society, Splav is a tale of family, friends, war and peace, and how to make a home in a very unexpected place. Think the Durrells, but grittier.