CORTO LITERARY AGENCY Rights Guide Frankfurt 2016 | 5

CONTENTS Corto Literary Agency

Corto Literary Agency...... 3 Corto Literary Agency represents some of the best and most prestigious writers from South-Eastern Europe, i.e. the Balkans. It is a territory of diversity; an intersection Ivana Bodrožic´...... 4 of various cultures, traditions, and practices, a territory that pulsates with creativity and variety. Žarko Lauševic´...... 7 Our mission is to choose only the finest and the most valuable in our pursuit to bring this talent closer to the international reading audience, to contribute to the Zoran Pilic´...... 10 open world of new stories, new voices and new ideas that can enrich and change us. Besides representing authors from the Balkans, Corto Literary also works as a Ivica Djikic´...... 14 sub-agent for publishers and literary agencies abroad on Eastern European markets. Drago Glamuzina...... 19 Our main objective is to match the right publishers with just the right titles and thus contribute to the greater success of our clients. Zoran Feric´...... 23 We serve as a mediator in the translation and publishing of the books from the Balkans abroad and vice versa, but we’d also be willing to offer our active support Rumena Bužarovska...... 30 and help in any aspect of our client`s work.

Aleš Cˇ ar...... 33

Davor Mandic´...... 37 6 | corto literary agency Ivana Bodrožić Rights Guide | 7 Ivana Bodrožić HOTEL TITO Profil International, 2010, 188 pages THE PIT • 15-pages long excerpt in English • complete German, French and Danish translation Naklada Ljevak, Balkan Noir edition, February 2016, 216 pages

Bestselling and award-winning poet and novelist, Ivana Bodrožić, Translation rights sold: USA (Seven Stories Press), Germany (Hanser), France (Acte Sud), Denmark through the genre of political thriller, boldly engages to unmask (Tiderne Skifter), Hungary (Libri), Czech (Paseka), Slovenia (Modrijan), Serbia (Rende), Macedonia (Ma- one’s transitional society, deeply imbued with crime and corrup- gor), Turkey (Aylak Adam) tion. Ivana Bodrožić describes the banality of war. Her debut novel is This intelligent, dramatic, powerful, tragic, menacing and dark, but the deeply unsettling story of a young girl growing up in times above all brave novel, opens up with a prison scene. Journalist Nora of conflict who nevertheless clings to hope and courage through- Kirin arrives in an unnamed Croatian town chasing a story of a local out. high school teacher who, along with her underaged lover, murdered her husband. An intriguing, agonizing and dark story about a family The girl is nine years old when she is sent to the seaside in the sum- tragedy and a scorned woman leads into a series of parallel narratives mer of 1991 – but the holiday turns into a timely escape, because war colliding in the nether regions of this deeply divided city. One of the breaks out in her hometown of Vukovar while she’s away. And her fa- major narrative lines leads Nora to her father’s murderer, who got killed ther has disappeared without trace... The voice of the young narrator is around twenty years before, on the eve of the war, while acting as a deft and engaging as she unfolds the story of the life that follows in a mediator in negotiations between enemy sides and warning them that refugee camp that was formerly an elite public school. She will spend the conflict might be intentionally provoked. the next six years of her life there, cooped up in a single tiny room with The novel is set at the time when bilingual boards were being placed on public institutions in a her mother and brother. Their living quarters might be cramped, and town where human victims still make the most profitable trade deals. The movers and shakers of each of the exiles in the camp has suffered their own trauma, but at least there’s always company and all processes are the same people who were actively involved in war crimes during the 90s, corrupt life is never dull. Here the girl makes new friends and lives through the vicissitudes of puberty – from politicians, surviving mobsters, warlords who, almost twenty years later, converted into members of her first visit to the disco and her first kiss to her first drink and the inevitable hangover. She also has the local political and social elite. to contend with the worries of her mother, a woman who never allows her proud standards to slip, as This atmospheric novel about a town without a name is infused with lyrical parts and filled to the well as her brother’s rage as he relentlessly petitions the president. And every day she hopes to hear brim with diverse characters bursting with life and credibility, which takes her impressive prose to a someone bring her the news that she so longs to hear – that her father is still alive. level of a universal study of human nature. Hotel Tito is a formidable document of self-assertion – humorous, adroit and without the slightest REVIEWS AND PRAISES: trace of false sentimentality. Seen through this young girl’s eyes, the harsh reality of war appears in a completely different light. The Pit is a masterful refection of one country’s reality, a septic pit in which crime, false war merits and actual profiteering, political menace cloaked in cheap patriotism, bloodstained secrets of recent past and hypocrisy coming from those offering a bright future, are being fermented and accumulated. It is a novel REVIEWS AND PRAISES: created by skillfully combining press clippings from crime chronicles and high-profiled politics in which, Ivana Simić Bodrožić has written a novel of one’s epoch. It is the most what a writer can do and one of the similarly to the Croatian reality, everything is mixed in the same blender producing a revolting nauseating main meanings of literature in general. spew. Ivana Bodrožić takes the bull by the horns, dealing with subjects considered taboo as well as the milJenko JergoVic, a writer sacred cows, by placing them in a familiar setting, not only geographically, but also within the time coor- dinates we usually call – our reality.” Reading this novel has moved me deeply. Drago HeDl, writer Janne teller, a writer Developed as a classic thriller in which the murders are multiplying, this novel represents the devastation the war has left behind, a good 15 years after it had nominally ended on the territory of the Republic of Croatia. The most important thing to emphasize is the representation of a collective downfall which is equal on both sides, the one which participated in the aggression and the one that defended itself from this aggression. The worldview which this narrative constructs is quite literally a hole, a pit in which the corpses that were slaughtered in horrible ways on Ovčara are buried together with the remains of our collective humanity. Its magnetic power is gargantuan, so much so that it transforms into a cosmic black hole which swallows all of us and turns us into non-humans, creatures without morality. And that is this war’s greatest defeat. Both the aggressors and the victims are left without any possibility of redemption, without any chance of love which has always been the only path into the future. VlaDimir arsenić, literary critic 8 | corto literary agency Rights Guide | 9

Ivana Bodrožić Žarko Laušević Ivana Bodrožić, born in 1982 in Vukovar, attended secondary school in Zagreb and got her Master’s degree in Croatian studies and philosophy at the Zagreb University. A YEAR MAY PASS BUT THIS DAY NEVER ENDS: A JAIL DIARY Her debut poem collection First Step into the Darkness, published 2005, earned her the Goran Prize for Young Poets, a prestigious literary award for young Novosti Publishing, 2011, 448 pages poets, and the Kvirin Prize, an award for best poets under the age of thirty five. Her poetry has been published in various literary magazines (Vijenac, Quorum, • 30 pages excerpt in English Poezija) and included in anthologies of modern Croatian poetry as the young- est author. Her poetry has been translated into various European languages Translation rights sold: Croatia (Profil), Slovenia (Modrijan Založba), Macedonia (Tri Publishing) and the integral poem collection First Step into Darkness was translated into Spanish. The novel Hotel Zagorje (published in 2010, Profil publishing) received When you kill a man, you cease to be free. the following honours: The life of the writer and actor Žarko Laušević (1960), the movie • Josip and Ivan Kozarac Award star of Yugoslavia’s theatre and film industry and – at the mere age • Kočić’s feather, Banja Luka – Belgrade (for outstanding achievement in modern literature) of thirty – the winner of some of the most prestigious national • Kiklop – for the best work of fiction in 2010 awards, suddenly turned upside down in the year 1993. when he • Prix Ulysse for the best debut novel for translated fiction was involved in a fight in Podgorica (Montenegro) where he killed In February 2012, The German translation of Hotel Zagorje was published by renowned Hanser Ver- two young men in a self-defense and severely wounded another lage, followed by Actes Sud in France. man. The tragedy coincided with the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia, which Laušević witnessed from behind the prison bars. To present day it has been published in Serbia, and translated into Slovenian, Czech, Macedonian, The event instantly deluged the media. The trial was closely Turkish, Danish, Hungarian and next year it will be translated into English by Ellen Elias-Bursać and pub- supervised and – despite many appeals – Laušević was sentenced lished by renowned US publisher Seven Stories Press. Furthermore, Ivana Bodrožić wrote a screenplay to four years of prison after already being locked up for months. together with award-winning Bosnian director Jasmila Žbanić for a motion picture based on this novel. However, the ordeal didn’t stop there. Even though Laušević came She was awarded with Ranko Marinković Prize (2nd place) for the best short story in 2011, and the fol- out of prison and emigrated to America a year later, the court of lowing year her second poem collection A Road for Wild Animals was published by V.B.Z. publishing. Montenegro used his absence to change his sentence to thirteen In the year 2014, her first short story collection 100% Cotton was published, again by V.B.Z. publish- years. In addition, a warrant was issued against him and his ing. For a year and a half she was a contributor for Croatian daily newspapers Večernji list and spent personal documents lost its validity due to Montenegro’s secession from Serbia. some time writing for the regional issue of Rolling Stone magazine. Today she mentors creative writ- For many years, deportation was just around the corner – even though in 2009, Serbia granted him ing workshops in Zagreb. citizenship, pardoned him and presented him with a passport – until the USA finally granted him a green card in 2013 and with it the Right of Permanent Residence and the right to move freely. Laušević’s career was thus finished, the years passed and his persona was beginning to fall into oblivion. In 2011, he suddenly returned with more presence than ever before. He published A Year May Pass But This Day Never Ends, a book that enthused literary critics and regarding which much was written and talked about in every corner of the former Yugoslavia. In Serbia, as many as 350.000 copies were sold, beating the decade’s sales records. Laušević decided to put his horrific experience on paper and wrote an unusual, shocking, prison-bound diary. The book pulsates in the rhythm of the author’s personal experience – straightforwardly. He battles with memories of the fatal event, conducts a study of the cell and his cellmates, pokes fun at the circumstances and falls back on the memories of his youth or some anecdotal happening from his time as an actor. At certain times he only notes a minor detail or a fragment from his train of thought; at other times he essayistically deliberates on an array of topics and doesn’t shy away from the most vulnerable or taboo-like intimacies. Žarko Laušević artfully steers between different narratives that are connected by the hemorrhage of time spent behind bars and despite the abyss into which he repeatedly dives often resorts to superb irony and humor. Thus, this book reflects an unusual aspect of a forever-lost past, a personal tragedy and the breakup of Yugoslavia itself. After the success of his book debut, Laušević continues to write. In his new work, he focuses on a no less stormy account of his life after prison (mainly in America) – a story still wrapped into a cocoon of secrets. 10 | corto literary agency Rights Guide | 11

PUBLISHING HISTORY OF THE BOOK: FOREWORD TO THE SERBIAN EDITION, EXCERPTS A Year May Pass But This Day Never Ends was first published in November 2011 and by mid-February it You are holding Žarko Laušević’s first book. In it you will find Žarko as participant and interpreter, had sold a record 350,000 copies in a country of slightly over seven million. In Serbia, as in the other narrator of his own sins, meter of his own punishment, double murderer and a prisoner, a husband and a countries of the former Yugoslavia, even a bestseller rarely tops 10,000, so this is Serbia’s bestselling father, a brother and a son. The book is difficult, precise, painful, sharp. Unique. Frank. book ever, published at a time of crisis both in book sales and in reading, when a vast majority of Prepare yourselves for the journey you are undertaking with each new page. The trip is not an easy one, the population is hampered by poverty. the story – emotional, some of the sentences stab like knives. But if you read with an open heart, the The publisher recently announced a fifth printing, 50,000 copies, in response to the unflagging ultimate reward will be something very special: an encounter with a wounded human soul that has been interest in the book and the lively controversy that has been raging since it first appeared. through hell and back while examining the world with open eyes, driven by a desire to know it. Laušević’s book is being sought by readers beyond Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia; there are zoran aMar, Movie director and professor Macedonian, Slovenian, and Croatian editions in the works.

REVIEWS AND PRAISES: This fine actor is also a great storyteller, writer, confessor, word master: a man who knows how to think. The book is imbued with a painful philosophy – genuine, profound, sincere – and springs from the tragic experience of a truly intelligent man. Žarko Laušević This work stands alone in world literature. On less than four hundred pages Laušević never repeats a Žarko Laušević 1960 in Cetinje, (Montenegro, Yugoslavia) is a Serbian sentence or a thought. This is four hundred pages of utterly fresh thinking, presentation of facts and actor. Considered to be one of the most talented actors of his cogitation about them, and it truly does purify every reader. generation, he became a leading actor early in his career. By the age of 33, he was a major star across the former Yugoslavia on both stage Jovan Ćirilov, theater critic and theorist and screen, displaying a wide range of dramatic skills. He has made over forty films, and starred in most of them. He was also a major This exquisite book about a day that never ends belies all expectations and assumptions. There is nothing presence on television and the stage. In the summer of 1993 he was a knee-jerk here, nothing tawdry, nothing calculated for flashy effect. Laušević has written a tough book, a participant in a terrible tragedy that changed his life forever. settling of accounts with himself, but with no trace of pettiness or self-laceration. vida ognJenoviĆ, writer and theater director

Laušević has written a confession that is light, yet surgically precise and stylistically pure; he has spun out his life’s journey for us with candor and sensitivity. The sincerity with which he opens up to us is compelling. He never holds back, he pares himself down to the bare skin and then peels the skin away. He hammers nails into his own flesh – crucifying himself. ManoJlo vukotiĆ, director of the Novosti publishing coMpany, lauševiĆ’s publisher in serbia

The writer, as protagonist, sounds the depths of the vulgarity around him, convinced at first that he is above it, reconciling later to the fact that he is part and parcel of it all. His inability to distance himself from his surroundings forces him to identify with them. The stench of urine, a roomate’s coughing fit, the noise, laughter, sobs... He listens to the thoughts of others, registers their habits, their fates, does anything to evade facing himself, and fails. He is tormented by thoughts of suicide, and scrutinizes his actions one by one as he fights to keep hold of his sanity. daliborka-kiš Juzbaša, BaNja Luka protest

This book is a true-to-life movie. It is a postcard with a stamp. It is a letter sent to you. This book is an act of philosophy that never pretends to be. He writes with candor, intent, satire. This novel contains the history of a country. It has given rise to accolades that are not to be ignored. tanJa stoJanoviĆ, blog reviewer

This is a painful, thrilling, inspirational book. It is a call for each and every one of us to examine our conscience, our capacity for suffering, and our spiritual tenacity. kseniJa JovanoviĆ, actress

Written over the eighteen years that have passed since that terrible night in Podgorica, this book faces us in the best possible way with who we are. darko baJiĆ, Movie director 12 | corto literary agency Rights Guide | 13

REVIEWS AND PRAISES: Zoran Pilić What makes Pilić so successful? We are talking about an author that superbly knows how to edit multiple digressions and various branches of a plot, an author who knows how to extract out of reality the very best for his fiction, who relies on cinematic and literary references when needed and who can link the THE PAPER DEVILS seemingly unlinkable, for instance laughter and violence or male psychology and literary concepts. Jagna Pogačnik, literary critic Profil International, 2011, 374 pages Basing itself precisely on the produced factographical information, Tatoo, a novel within the novel, ap- • 20 pages long excerpt in English proaches the theme of teenage bullying and coldblooded murder from the intriguing executioners’ point of view and structures itself as a classic psychological thriller that strongly debates the idea of an ethical A dynamic plot, idiosyncratic characters and a book with a completely different feel to it, responsibility within a text and the social relevance of its theme. Although the intent of this novel within give us the right to assume that the Coen brothers’ cinematic characters have seemingly a novel isn’t to psychologize its anti-heroes or to represent the social genesis of their killer instincts, it still relocated to the pages of this book. indirectly argues about the dangers of a virtual society that treats this “unbearable lightness of killing” both as a narrative and as a global trend.

In explosions of violence and laughter, somewhere in between reality anera ryznar, university Professor, Quorum and delusion, invisible scissors are snipping, leaving paper devils be­ Zoran Pilić hind, characters at times so real that you could even bump into them in the street today, if you were to be so unlucky. THERE ARE NO ELEPHANTS IN MEXICO Two stories coalesce in The Paper Devils: one, a satire of the everyday life of two writers, and the other, a tragic story of the violence among teenagers. Šamski and Fred were on the very fringe of Zagreb’s Fraktura, 2014, 176 pages literary scene. Šamski believes that his prose should correspond with reality and thus reach a wide audience, while Fred would be happiest • Four stories translated in English if he could live out his entire literary career away from the public’s eye and as far away as possible from the critics. There Are No Elephants in Mexico is a collection of short stories with beguiling dialogues and Around the time of the tenth anniversary of the Columbine massacre brilliantly weird characters that once again confirms Zoran Pilić is one of Croatia’s wittiest au- and right after his girlfriend had left him, Šamski started working on thors. Without a doubt, these stories will make us laugh but they’ll also subtly lead us to the a manuscript called Tattoo about the brutal violence among teen­ other, dark side which can’t be seen from Earth and where we rarely dare to set our foot on. agers from the point of view of two juvenile killers. Convinced that the 1999 Colum bine high­school massacre was a crucial tipping point which marked the beginning of a new era in violence, Šamski From up there, from the Moon, one cannot see Mexico. connected his fictional narrative with five other real massacres – two in Finland, two in Germany To be more precise, one cannot see the elephants there (even if there and another one in the U. S. (Virginia Tech). All of them were tied, one way or another, to the Colum­ were any), nor can one see old people babbling with their angels in bine shooters, Harris and Klebold. A sensationalist approach from a part of the American and global abandoned Croatian villages, nor the couples who love each other media, in the time following the shooting, created requirements for the birth of a dark cult which peculiarly in Zagreb apartments, nor teenagers who jump over war torn worshipped Harris and Klebold as heroes. borders leaving behind themselves a sparkling trail of legendary NBA While Šamski staggered between reality and fiction, still not quite understanding what had drawn stars. Luckily, everything one cannot see from the Moon is exactly what him to write this story, Fred was experiencing the last thing he ever wanted – literary success. His the narrator preys upon. entire life Fred had wholeheartedly tried to stay in the shelter of anonymity, to go by unnoticed, to The net which the narrator Zoran Pilić spreads across the world catches survive with only a dozen of readers but then, completely suddenly and unexpectedly, his novel what is big and small in our lives, and in it there’ll be war and peace, Franzen’s pan found itself in the running for one of the region’s most lucrative literary prizes. love and fear, blonde Slovenian poetesses and lonely monsters from old Fred was truly terrified with his sudden emergence from the shadows and Šamski, as much as he Slavic legends and, just for us, it will be pulled out into the surface, with wanted to enjoy the irony of this situation, was falling deeper and deeper into the dark world of his its entire plentiful catch, by Pilić’s protagonists – heroes and anti­heroes manuscript from which he found he was unable to distance himself. The diabolical characters of the of the oddest shapes and sizes. killers from New Zagreb seemed to have gotten out of control and were starting to live a life inde­ pendent of their creator. By the time he finished the manuscript, he realized what related him to this The End of Summer is a story about a boy who early on in his life experiences a traumatic event story of violence. In one of the lower grades of primary school, he witnessed one of his classmates when his favourite animal, a pig named Lucky, gets slaughtered. As the years go by, the boy tries to being bullied and did nothing. In reality these passive observers make up the majority of people – compensate what he lacks in height with fanatical training sessions which distort him into an over those who will do nothing out of fear for themselves and because of that the hellish circle of vio­ muscular dwarf. Secretly, he adores Emilia, the girl next door, and when she falls in love with his best lence, in which yesterday’s victims often become tomorrow’s abusers, will continue indefinitely. friend, the boy goes on a revenge rampage. Faced with the truth that had been hidden in his subconscious for years, Šamski became aware of the fact In the story The Wolfgoat we follow five writers on a field trip that will turn into a nightmare. A not that by writing one could make the devil visible, draw attention to him, but one couldn’t destroy him. so famous Croatian writer who dislikes the outdoors reluctantly accepts an invitation from his col­ In the same way or very similarly, Fred was incapable of once again becoming unknown – he could league Tanja to go on a field trip along with her, the Israeli writer Etgar Keret and two other foreign only suffer defeat, a step before he climbed to the top and experienced literary immortality. writers. Their goal is to visit Blaž Perković, a Croatian writer who has been living on Velebit moun­ tain. On the way to his cabin, the Slovenian poetess gets kidnapped by the terrifying Wolfgoat – a lonely monster from ancient legends that now lives in the real world. Though they rather wouldn’t, the feeling of responsibility pushes our writers in search for their unfortunate colleague. No Harm from Them is a story dedicated to the last generation of immigrants from ex­Yugoslavian countries. A refugee from Bosnia and a former soldier lost everything he could and so he abandons his shattered country and goes to Germany. Upon arriving in the Promised Land he recalls the memory of his father who, approximately thirty years ago, also came to Germany on temporary labour and stayed there until his death. Since then the world has changed but the history of the people from the Balkans repeats itself from generation to generation. Zoran Pilić THERE ARE NO ELEPHANTS IN MEXICO

Fraktura, 2014, 176 pages

• Four stories translated in English

There Are No Elephants in Mexico is a collection of short stories with beguiling dialogues and brilliantly weird characters that once again confirms Zoran Pilić is one of Croatia’s wittiest au- thors. Without a doubt, these stories will make us laugh but they’ll also subtly lead us to the other, dark side which can’t be seen from Earth and where we rarely dare to set our foot on.

From up there, from the Moon, one cannot see Mexico. To be more precise, one cannot see the elephants there (even if there were any), nor can one see old people babbling with their angels in abandoned Croatian villages, nor the couples who love each other peculiarly in Zagreb apartments, nor teenagers who jump over war torn borders leaving behind themselves a sparkling trail of legendary NBA stars. Luckily, everything one cannot see from the Moon is exactly what the narrator preys upon. The net which the narrator Zoran Pilić spreads across the world catches what is big and small in our lives, and in it there’ll be war and peace, love and fear, blonde Slovenian poetesses and lonely monsters from old Slavic legends and, just for us, it will be pulled out into the surface, with its entire plentiful catch, by Pilić’s protagonists – heroes and anti­heroes of the oddest shapes and sizes.

The End of Summer is a story about a boy who early on in his life experiences a traumatic event when his favourite animal, a pig named Lucky, gets slaughtered. As the years go by, the boy tries to compensate what he lacks in height with fanatical training sessions which distort him into an over muscular dwarf. Secretly, he adores Emilia, the girl next door, and when she falls in love with his best friend, the boy goes on a revenge rampage. In the story The Wolfgoat we follow five writers on a field trip that will turn into a nightmare. A not so famous Croatian writer who dislikes the outdoors reluctantly accepts an invitation from his col­ 14 |league corto Tanja literary to go on a fieldagency trip along with her, the Israeli writer Etgar Keret and two other foreign Rights Guide | 15 writers. Their goal is to visit Blaž Perković, a Croatian writer who has been living on Velebit moun­ tain. On the way to his cabin, the Slovenian poetess gets kidnapped by the terrifying Wolfgoat – a lonely monster from ancient legends that now lives in the real world. Though they rather wouldn’t, DOGGIESTYLE the feeling of responsibility pushes our writers in search for their unfortunate colleague. No Harm from Them is a story dedicated to the last generation of immigrants from ex­Yugoslavian Konzor, 2007, 218 pages countries. A refugee from Bosnia and a former soldier lost everything he could and so he abandons his shattered country and goes to Germany. Upon arriving in the Promised Land he recalls the Doggiestyle, a collection of urban short stories, is filled with naturalistic memory of his father who, approximately thirty years ago, also came to Germany on temporary details. In a dynamic rhythm, the stories from this debutant book dive labour and stayed there until his death. Since then the world has changed but the history of the into places of intimacy, portray male friendships and wartime and post­ people from the Balkans repeats itself from generation to generation. war chaos in which both the body and soul get damaged. These stories take gory news headlines and form their plots around them. This is all REVIEWS AND PRAISES: done with a constantly present dark sense of humour and on a familiar social, war­time and transitional background. Pilić certainly is portrayed as a witty writer, and he actually is one, but that humour of his, which is often dark, doesn’t stem from some banalities but rather from deeply contemplated and often tragic life In a thematically diverse way, the author talks about male­female rela­ situations. Pilić is a master of dark but not depressing stories, and he is aware that reality should not be tions (memorable dialogues), friendships and acquaintances, the situa­ transcribed but that it should be condensed to its best parts which should then be underlined with origi- tion after the war but also about the everyday life in a city neighbour­ nal, literary solutions. Add to it excellent dialogues, a fast narrative pace and skilful editing of various plot hood. On the covers we will also find a list of two potential soundtracks branches (especially in longer prose, such as in the excellent story Mojo) and this new book by Pilić is then for this book. best described by one of its own sentences: Improvisation, relaxation, realization – just like playing hoops. Everything is very casual, but behind all of it there is still a clear, albeit not too loud of a concept. All in all – a truly excellent book! Jagna Pogačnik, JutarnJi list

The stories from the book There Are No Elephants in Mexico are not a sombre, defeatist melody with which we mourn all the horrors of our lives in a valley of impossibilities. On the contrary, these stories Zoran Pilić have a very strong ironic and humorous undertone able to balance out the feelings of universal failure, Born in Zagreb, Zoran Pilić is a novelist, short­story writer and a emptiness and being lost. This undertone also infuses into this fictional world, which has a very peculiar poet. His first collection of short stories Doggiestyle (2007) was atmosphere, vibrancy and a need for life. turned into a theatre play Sex, laži i jedan anđeo (Sex, Lies and One Angel) which was performed at the Zagreb Academy of Drama Arts ĐorĐe kraJišnik, oslobođenJe in 2009. His second novel Đavli od papira (Paper Devils) was short­ In the nine stories gathered in the book There Are No Elephants in Mexico we may not go far listed for the prestigious Croatian literary award Jutarnji list and geographically, but we will dive into the depths of addicted, lonely and enamoured individuals through listed as one of the best novels in 2012 by the Croatian Ministry of delicate introspectively connected sentences that, in a lax and common way, offer the reader exactly Culture. The Ministry listed Pilic’s collection of short stories Nema what he needs. A persuasive style, almost minimalistic, draws the reader into what Pilić calls in one of his slonova u Meksiku (There Are No Elephants in Mexico) as one of the stories, something like a thought that comes to you while you walk. In other words, something authentic country’s best books again in 2014. His short story Kad su Divovi and recognizable. hodali zemljom (When Giants Walked the Earth) won the European Short Story Festival prize in 2015. He also writes book reviews and neven vulić, moderna Vremena publishes fictional editorial on Booksa.hr.

BACK-LIST TITLES: KRIMSKRAMS

Profil International 2009, 273 pages

This is a story of three friends who are all pushing their forties. They are childish, egocentric, narcissistic, irresponsible and sometimes even ruth­ lessly selfish. They’ve left behind them, in sum, one failed marriage and a ton of failed relationships. All in all, they are in the middle of a serious mid­life crisis. When the mistress of one of them (the wife of an influential politician) dies during sex, a series of unbelievable, sometimes eerie and some­ times just down right bizarre events will follow, which will bring into question not only their friendship but a great deal more. 16 | corto literary agency Ivica Djikić Rights Guide | 17 REPETITION. A LOVE STORY Ivica Djikić Naklada Ljevak, 2014, 136 pages SREBRENICA. A STORY OF EVIL • 20-page excerpt available in English

Date of publication: May 2016, Naklada Ljevak, Zagreb Set in one winter night, beginning with the arrival of a more or less unexpected passenger and ending with one of the most po- • 60-pages excerpt available in English etic scenes in contemporary Croatian literature, Repetition has the discursive traces of a love story, a detective story and an elegy of the victim’s character but it cannot be classified in any of the Outstanding and unflinching documentary novel that follows the aforementioned categories. It has a story on its own. events that took place in the course of the three days and nights (between 13 and 16 July 1995) during which almost eight thou- Dijana Lovrić is travelling from Zagreb to the Šćit monastery in Rama, sand Bosniaks were killed in the area of Srebrenica. The intention where Herzegovina and Bosnia meet. She is the editor of the Rama-Šćit of this non-fiction novel is to research and to understand, using monography, which will be published by a publishing house in Zagreb, literary means, how was it possible for a JNA officer, raised in the in cooperation with the local Franciscans. spirit of Yugoslavia and genuinely devoted to the Yugoslav ideal and Titoism, to take charge of the operation to kill eight thousand It is the end of February. Roads are covered in snow and Dijana has to people based exclusively on their ethnicity and religion. stay for a while in Duvno, located around fifty kilometers from Šćit, in the house of Marko Kelava with whom she has been living for the past year and a half in Zagreb. After he lost his job as a journalist, he found The main character is Colonel Ljubiša Beara, General Ratko Mladić’s se- work in the kitchen of a well-known restaurant. Their relationship and cond in command on the Main Staff of the VRS and its Chief of Security. their commitment to each other is much deeper than it may at first seem. Colonel Beara (born in Sarajevo in 1939), had been a professional na- val intelligence officer since 1963, Head of the Yugoslav National Army Dijana is going to spend one night in a snow house with Marko’s mother Ruža, his sister Anka, pater- (JNA) Security Service in the naval district of Split, and the Chief of the nal grandpa Mijo and grandpa’s sister Luca Meštrović. Here she will reveal or sense repressed family JNA Security Service between 1982 and the beginning of the war in pain and embarrassment. She will reveal or sense deep secrets that have become part of this small 1991. Beara was the main operative who organised the killing and burial of the thousands murdered city and the people living in it. She will resolve her strange relationship with Fr. Ljubo Pavlović, a in Srebrenica. He deployed the units whose members killed the prisoners, he organised buses and young friar from Šćit who is, together with the old Fr. Ivo Džalta, determined to cooperate with Dijana trucks that transported the prisoners to the locations of the execution. It was Beara who determined on the monography, which has been two years in the making. and approved those locations, and organised the excavators that dug graves for the victims and bu- Repetition by Ivica Djikić is a novel about love and the fear of love, disappearances, farewells, the ried their remains. Genocide in Srebrenica was, in fact, an operation of Mladić’s most trusted senior known and unknown graveyards; they will recapture the voices of those missing or forever enrap- officers for security and intelligence. tured by their faith in a miracle. As well as following Beara’s every movement and action during those three days and nights in July Djikić’s heroes are led by instinct, love and their emotional relations are complex, solutions to puzzles usually 1995 when eight thousand people in Srebrenica were killed, the novel narrates his life before the war elude them, and catharsis rarely occurs. They are fallible and miraculous, just like every other human being. and during the war, featuring elements that set the main story in the wider context of the political and social circumstances of the time. ADRIANA PITEšA, JutarnJi list Ljubiša Beara has been convicted in the first instance of genocide and other crimes in The Hague and sentenced to life imprisonment, and the final judgement is expected soon. REVIEWS AND PRAISES:

THE STORY BEHIND THE BOOK – RESEARCH: Although the critics of Djikić’s first novel saw Fellini and Kusturica as influences, writers of Central Europe, such as Odon Von Horvath, have left a much more definite stamp. The outstanding personal investment of the author can be just briefly illustrated by the fact that it took ten years for Ivica Djikic to research all the sources for this book. Those are primary the doc- El PAIS uments produced by the ICTY in The Hague – indictments, transcripts of court hearings, the first instance and appeal verdicts, evidence material and appellant’s briefs in the several trials before the Ivica Djikić lets questions of truth and morality fly in space “en passant”, like danger and bullets. ICTY pertaining to Srebrenica as well as hundreds of books, military manuals and textbooks, count- NEuE züRCHER zEITuNg less newspaper articles, reports, features, documentaries… In a refined way, Djikić constructs a novel about the traces of the past hidden behind the coulisse of con- The second part of the research involves interviews with people who knew Ljubiša Beara and his temporary Croatia. family at various stages of their lives; they mostly live in Belgrade and Split. lITERATuRKRITIK.DE The third part of the research is to be carried out in Sarajevo, where the documents of the relevant trials carried out by the courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be examined. This part of the research Ivica Djikić, with a sarcastic tone, speaks about the dramas of individuals and the collective. includes interviews with those familiar with the functioning of the VRS Main Staff, with special em- OsservatOriO balcani e caucasO phasis on the role of the Security Administration and Colonel Beara. 18 |Ivica corto literaryDjikić agency Ivica Djikić Rights Guide | 19 I DREAMED THE ELEPHANTS CIRCUS COLUMBIA

Naklada Ljevak, 2011, 256 pages Feral Tribune, 2003, 110 pages

• complete translation available in German and Spanish • complete translation available in Spanish and Italian

Translation rights sold: Spain (Sajalin Editores), Germany (Kunstmann Verlag), Hungary (Europa Translation rights sold: Italy (Zandonai Editore), Spain (Sajalin Editores), Bosnia and Herzegovina Konyvkiado) (Civitas), Serbia (with other stories, Red Box)

A crime novel but also a great literary and social study of traumat- A political and romantic saga that covers the end of a century which ic times in Croatia and its characters. A revealing story about the tragically announced the beginning of a new era in the Balkans. pathological affinities between the secret services and politics that Written is prose typical of the best of Bosnian writers – as the No- have the elusive appeal of organized crime: typical social-patho- bel prize winning author Ivo Andrić – in its method of storytell- logical phenomena. ing, in its creation and development of character, its consistent plot and specific sense of calm when presenting even the most Andrija Sučić, a former soldier and a former member of the personal disturbing content. guard of the first president of Croatia, was executed in front of his own home. He talked too much: mass graves, the killing of civilians... and then Circus Columbia, the debut novel by Ivica Djikić tells the story of the city there was the strange case of the elephants. It was insane and danger- of Mostar and its citizens during the war and postwar period, in the 90s ous for those who had done business during the war and for those who of the last century. tried to strengthen their political career in the new Croatia. His death A moody and resentful Gastarbeiter returns to his hometown, a small does not seem to matter to anyone except to his secret son Boško, who town in Herzegovina, where he immediately loses the black cat to works at the National Security Service and decides to investigate the whom he’s morbidly attached. The entire citizenry, ured by the prom- death on his own. Boško’s inquiries lead him to the state’s criminal un- ise of a big reward, is involved in a mad pursuit of the cat, an emana- derground, where prosecutors and powerful politicians mingle with mobsters and then shamelessly tion of a Bulgakovian infernal memory, followed by chaotic episodes both hilarious and tragic. return home after their reign in “the three streets in Frankfurt in which German is not spoken”. The The subversion of the balance of a small community, already torn by rough borders and domestic second novel by Ivica Djikić describes, through the voices of several narrators, some dark times in a envy, provides the cat Bonny, the winds of a fratricidal war with its executions, deportations and bright and sharp prose that affirms him as one of the greatest exponents of the new Balkan narrative. stampedes with a certain significance; we will also find nationalist ravings that eventually arrive at the The novel won prestigious T-portal Award for the best novel published in 2011 in Croatia. forefront of a new generation of “patriots” who entrust themselves to the admiration of the fragility Djikić depicts a dramatic and exciting side of the transformation; the transition from socialism to democ- of fate. racy. An intelligent and exciting Zeitroman. This is an epic, grotesque and corrosive satire of the “Croatian renaissance” of the nineties, a tale of JöRg PlATH, Germany radiO culture (dlr kultur) many voices; all expressing a power of narrative verve that, in the tradition of Balkan literature, pre- fers the wrong side of the world over the right, revealing how ephemeral the boundaries are of when attempting to establish private or collective identity. 20 | corto literary agency Rights Guide | 21

Ivica Djikić Drago Glamuzina Born in Tomislavgrad 1977, he has funneled all his experience as a journalist into novels with its brilliant, razor-sharp prose. He began working at the Slo- THREE bodna Dalmacija newspapers when he was only sixteen, going on to work at the Feral Tribune, Novi List and now as an editor-in-chief of the weekly maga- Profil International, 2008, 249 pages zine Novosti, in addition to authoring and co-authoring biographies on both former Croatian president Stipe Mesić, former general Ante Gotovina and the • 18-pages excerpt available in English Turkish millionaire Şarik Tara. Everything he writes is based on real cases and • complete translation in German real people, but as the opening lines of his second novel I Dreamed of Elephants express, in a quote from Saramago (The Elephant’s Journey), “In truth, I say to Translation rights sold: Serbia (Rende), Macedonia (Makedonska reč), Slovenia (Beletrina) you, it is better to be a novelist, a fiction writer, a liar.” His novels Circus Co- lumbia and I Dreamed of Elephants are translated into German, Italian, Spanish Written in a style manner of Raymond Carver, with a subtle influ- and Hungarian. For Circus Columbia (2003) he received prestigious book award Meša Selimović for ence of Milan Kundera, this masterful novel about one-but-ev- the best fiction book in Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. Academy Award ery love triangle gives us a fascinating and complex portrait of winner Danis Tanović directed the movie Circus Columbia (2010) with Djikić as a co-screenwriter. The the love demon, the world whose beauty one can`t measure with movie won numerous awards and it was shown in cinema in 30 countries around the world. In 2007 black and white morality but rather feel under the pulse of the Djikić publishes his second fiction bookNišta sljezove boje (Mallow Colour of Nothing) which consists of beating heart. three separate stories. The main subject of these stories is again war with its direct and indirect con- sequences and set-backs caused by it. In 2010 he publishes with Davor Krile and Boris Pavelić book Three is a love novel in which jealousy is most talked over. The center about controversial Croatian general Ante Gotovina (Gotovina – stvarnost i mit). In 2011 he publishes of the novel are three characters in a love triangle – Goran , a journalist the novel I Dreamed the Elephants (Sanjao sam slonove) for which he received the prestigious T-portal and a writer, his wife Sandra, and his lover Hana. literary award. His latest novel Repetition. A love story (Ponavljanje. Ljubavna priča, 2014) is more fo- Goran and Sandra have lived together since college and they share an cused on the intimate relations and shows us that Djikić is as good in that area as in contouring the open and tolerant relationship in which it is allowed to go out with oth- global panel. er people. They feel that no one can be forced to stay with someone else and that this trust and understanding they share are exactly what separates them from others. This is what makes their lives better, this is what is so difficult to find and create, and they are convinced that because of all this their relationship will endure everything. And it really has been so. For years. But, when Goran meets Hana, everything starts to change. Hana is passionate, wild, strange, and is neither wise nor tolerant. No, she is jealous, and her love destructive. Yet, Goran cannot resist her. Drawn into that vortex, soon he too becomes jealous and possessive, something he fought against his whole life. Hana wants to drive out of their life everything but the two of them, and everything starts getting in the way, both friends, work… and what once was love now turns into possessive obsession. Their relationship grows ever more destructive, and then also more trying and difficult to endure, until finally everything collapses under its own weight. The de- scriptions of this terrifying jealousy are the peak of the novel and thus it does not surprise that Hana’s character reminds many critics of Teresa, the heroine of Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Be- ing. And all these passionate emotions and furious relationships are in complete contrast toward the style in which the roman is written – in cold minimalism with a distant narrator who tries not to be involved emotionally thus offering us a fascinating psychological insight of the nature of this difficult relationship. In this novel, the author presents both concepts of life, and both of them, the one based on tolerance and understanding and the one based on possessiveness, jealousy and exclusiveness, cannot survive the crash against life, because life always outsmarts us. For months Three topped the “most read” books lists in Croatia and it won the T-Portal Novel of the Year Award, one of the most prestigious fiction prizes in Croatia. 22 | corto literary agency Drago Glamuzina Rights Guide | 23 REVIEWS AND PRAISES: BUTCHERS Three is one of the best novels published in Croatia in the past decade and a half. Naklada MD, 2001, 64 pages Damir raDić, Croatian radio 3

Everything in this novel is open, from its structure to the relationship between characters; everything here • English translation available is high in intensity and does not tolerate to be read in intervals, but “in one sitting. Translation rights sold: Germany (Wieser Verlag, Klagenfurt, 2008.), Macedonia (Makedonska reč, Jagna Pogačnik, JutarnJi list Skopje, 2008.), Slovenia (Litera, Maribor, 2001), Sebria (Naklada Profil, Belgrade 2008.)

Unforgiving, forensically detailed dissection of passion, jealousy, infidelity and faithfulness is impressive This collection of poems presents the reader with that part of and does not let to be forgotten. male-female relations we could, in line with the title of the collec- JaDranka Pintarić, ViJenaC tion, without hesitation call butchering, a mutual tattoo, a fight for the right of the voice of the Other. By identifying writing as a creative act and amatory spice, Glamuzina reminds of Durrell’s The Alexandria This is a narrative poetry that will appeal to the readers of H. Miller, Quartet. Bukowski, Anais Nin or Raymond Carver. ZDravko Zima, noVi list The book is based on a precise statement of the speaker, who determines This is a novel about lovers who are never just a couple in love – in fact they are always an un-couple. There himself against his Argonautic explorer nature and desire “to be calm”. is always a third person, a third wheel, and everyone is neither first, nor second but a little bit of the third. Brought in to the stage of events and surprised by its existing state, the Glamuzina writes a layered, dynamic story of love that’s everything but routine. Three is a novel without participants meet in almost classical situations that authenticate the sto- compromise, a story to be remembered, a true provocation. ry of the body – the body and its passions and fears, its desire and new- robert Perišić, a writer found secrets; the body exposed, disturbed, interlaced with scars “given” to men and women. But Glamuzina is a sensitive reader of the state of The world in this novel, although seemingly rough and unpleasant, draws us with its incredible power language, he controls the journey to the world of his intimacy; the in- because it offers a journey through a spiritual landscape not many have experienced. And intriguing story vestment of his own skin in the text and its exposure to the face of the world are timed and given in about love and torture, jealousy and gentleness, obsession and tolerance from which, through the splinters a balance of sexuality and eroticism, privacy and publicity, melancholy and complacence. However, of souls, elementary humanity radiates. I can’t remember if we have ever read such a difficult story with so the most beautiful part of the Butchers is the one that doesn’t succumb to direct intervention of the much ease. critic or the reader: through a remarkable poetic intonation and a provocative thematic inventory, Zoran Ferić, a writer this collection of poems persists in the quest for lashes of invisible fins through the Universe, through literature, films, through unspeakable music of the spheres. Mesari won the most prestigious national award Vladimir Nazor for Book of the Year and the Kvirin Prize for the Best Book of Poetry and is one of the most important collection of modern Croatian poetry.

REVIEWS: A rarely valuable book Glamuzina aims to enchant the reader by layering aggressive and discreet provocations on at least three levels: the declarative, textual, and contextual level. Every passage from one level onto the oth- er regularly breaks the just given promise and offers a new one, molding the book into an attractive, but hardly exhaustive verbal item. On a declarative level, the poet intercepts us with the title – Butchers. One would say: crude, “unpo- etic”, provocative... And bold, I would add. The literal reading of the collection finds motivation for it only in the final text, in which the sound of butchers’ axes becomes an indispensable element of the urban landscape the lyrical hero is plunged in. A hermetical reading, however, recognizes the echoes of this title in the type of experience observed by Glamuzina, in the tone in which he does it, and in the expressions of the sensitivity of his subject. The first commentators of the collection have already recognized the “butchers” as a global metaphor. Miroslav Mićanović spoke of the “investment of his own skin in the text and its exposure to the face of the world”, whereas Slaven Jurić mentioned praising the “cannibalistic character of human relations” in verse, suggested, among other things, “by details from the grim daily life of the 1990s”. On the textual level, we find a love story refined by a line of unselfconscious literary associations. Those that stand out are appeals to H. Miller, Bukowski, Anais Nin or Carver since they can be under- stood as the auto-poetic awareness of one’s own writing. Love and jealousy through a clash of one body against another become the origins of speaking about life and the world in general. Glamuzi- na’s act of switching the idyllic love couple with a dramatic love triangle ignites the lyrical narration that spreads in different directions. He, like the most in his generation, focuses on the fragments of a personal story, realizing successful textual figures and avoiding the trap of the mere versifying of ba- nalities and uncritical versing of an individual chronicle. The secret is in his reaching for vivid, graphic fragments that are not necessarily determined in time and space. The lyrical story finally transforms into the struggle between the private and the public sphere. Although it is dominated by privacy, seduction and (mis)understanding are two-sided. Even more, both sides equally contribute to the personalization of the subject of the book. We finally arrive at the contextual level. Here, the Butchers again confirm its polyvalent nature. On the one hand (in motives, narrative nature, the narcissism of the subject, the immediate spoken idiom…), they fit completely in the current trends of the youngest poetry, whereas, on the other hand, they maintain distance through an eclectic mix of heterogeneous styles. The author himself emphasizes that his poems have been borne out of doubt for every pretentious program, “whether it is social or poetic”. With great precision, he singled out one of the important features of his writing: “The emo- tions in my book are elevated, the irrational vortex is strong, but the speech of it is cold, ironic, often almost evidential, while the metaphors and similes have been reduced to the maximum or even eliminated completely.” Glamuzina’s lyrical experience and idiom approach the lyrical experiences and idioms that have originat- ed in the last fifteen years in both a friendly and restrained manner. His “butchers” often cut at the most sensitive spots. The reader is a witness of the origin of the wound and its healing into a scar. In short: a rarely valuable and well-rounded book. krešimir bagić, JutarnJi list of his own skin in the text and its exposure to the face of the world”, whereas Slaven Jurić mentioned 24 |praising corto the literary“cannibalistic agency character of human relations” in verse, suggested, among other things, “by Rights Guide | 25 details from the grim daily life of the 1990s”. On the textual level, we find a love story refined by a line of unselfconscious literary associations. Those that stand out are appeals to H. Miller, Bukowski, Anais Nin or Carver since they can be under- Zoran Ferić stood as the auto-poetic awareness of one’s own writing. Love and jealousy through a clash of one body against another become the origins of speaking about life and the world in general. Glamuzi- na’s act of switching the idyllic love couple with a dramatic love triangle ignites the lyrical narration ALONE BY THE SEA that spreads in different directions. He, like the most in his generation, focuses on the fragments of a personal story, realizing successful textual figures and avoiding the trap of the mere versifying of ba- V.B.Z., November 2015, 341 pages nalities and uncritical versing of an individual chronicle. The secret is in his reaching for vivid, graphic fragments that are not necessarily determined in time and space. The lyrical story finally transforms • Excerpt of the novel available in English into the struggle between the private and the public sphere. Although it is dominated by privacy, seduction and (mis)understanding are two-sided. Even more, both sides equally contribute to the personalization of the subject of the book. We finally arrive at the contextual level. Here, the Butchers again confirm its polyvalent nature. On the Four years after the great literary success of The Maya Calendar one hand (in motives, narrative nature, the narcissism of the subject, the immediate spoken idiom…), Zoran Ferić returns to the scene with the novel that deals with they fit completely in the current trends of the youngest poetry, whereas, on the other hand, they man-woman’s relationships and its peripeteias. But unlike in the maintain distance through an eclectic mix of heterogeneous styles. The author himself emphasizes voluminous Calendar, here the author doesn’t write the complete that his poems have been borne out of doubt for every pretentious program, “whether it is social or life stories of its characters but rather catches them in the key ep- poetic”. With great precision, he singled out one of the important features of his writing: “The emo- isodes where those lives start to form or refract. The whole is frac- tions in my book are elevated, the irrational vortex is strong, but the speech of it is cold, ironic, often tured, but the novel is completed and rounded. almost evidential, while the metaphors and similes have been reduced to the maximum or even eliminated completely.” Ferić`s literary home again is the Rab Island (but the authors follows Glamuzina’s lyrical experience and idiom approach the lyrical experiences and idioms that have originat- and sees off his characters as well in Makueni Country, Battle Creek, ed in the last fifteen years in both a friendly and restrained manner. His “butchers” often cut at the most Krakow, Graz, Zagreb, Rijeka...) where we are accompanied by the lives sensitive spots. The reader is a witness of the origin of the wound and its healing into a scar. In short: a of several local “seagulls” and “small town” girls, from their first adoles- rarely valuable and well-rounded book. cent years burst with hormones up to those weary and resigned mo- krešimir bagić, JutarnJi list ments when we slowly start to resume our lives. Luka, Boris, Gavran, Škemba, Lena and Alka are the main protagonists, but their stories are entwined with numerous “foreigners”: Constanze, Gaby, Urlike, Dagmar, Marie... Love, sex, and myriad humorous and distinctly Ferić`s grotesque situations, but just as well the sor- Drago Glamuzina row and melancholy and eternal wrestle with life that always somehow finds the way to “fuck you Born in Vrgorac in 1967, Drago Glamuzina graduated in compara- up”, and all of it written with the handwriting of one of the most persuasive and most authentic voic- tive literature and philosophy from Zagreb’s Faculty of Humanities es in modern Croatian literature. and Social Sciences. He worked as a journalist at Vjesnik and as an editor at Nacional News Magazine. From 2003 to 2011, he worked as the editor-in-chief at Profil Publishing, and since 2011 he works as the editor-in-chief of VBZ Publishing. His poetry, prose and literary criticism have been published in various magazines, in newspa- pers and broadcast on the radio. With Roman Simić he compiled an antho logy of Croatian erotic short stories Libido.hr. His publica- tions include Mesari (Butchers, poetry, Naklada MD, Zagreb, 2001), Tri (Three, a novel, Profil, Zagreb, 2008), Je li to sve (Is That All, poetry, VBZ, Zagreb, 2009), and a book of selected poems called Sami u toj šumi accompanied by photo- graphs by Stanko Abadžić (Alone in that Forest, Bibliofil, Zagreb, 2011). Mesari won the Vladimir Nazor Book of the Year Award and the Kvirin Prize for the Best Book of Poet- ry, and was translated into German (Wieser Verlag, Klagenfurt, 2008), Macedonian (Makedonska reč, Skopje, 2004), and Slovene (Litera, Maribor, 2001). and selections from it were also published in Ger- man, English and Polish. In 2009 Mesari was also published in Serbia by Naklada Profil Belgrade. His second book of poetry, Je li to sve, was translated into Macedonian (Makedonska reč, 2010). His novel Tri won the T-portal’s Award for the best Croatian novel published in 2008. Besides Croatia, Tri ap- peared in Serbia (Rende, Belgrade, 2009), Macedonia (Makedonska reč, 2009), and Slovenia (Beletrina, 2013), while its German translation is forthcoming. 26 |Zoran corto literary Ferić agency Zoran Ferić Rights Guide | 27 THE MAYA CALENDAR THE CHILDREN OF PATRAS

Profil International, 2011, 603 pages Biblioteka Premijera, Jutarnji List, 2005, 188 pages

• 40 pages excerpts in English • complete translation in German and Italian • complete translation in German Translation rights sold: Germany (Folio Verlag), Italy (Zandonai editore), Slovenia (V.B.Z.) Translation rights sold: Germany (Folio Verlag) This novel, with a well-rounded and compact plot, deals with a considered by many to be Ferić’s best work. A novel of wider scope provocative theme: the love between a forty year old high-school which incorporates a novel about growing up in Zagreb in the fif- teacher and an ill seventeen year old schoolgirl. Although the ties and sixties of the last century, a story about the love between theme is somewhat controversial and the relationship essential- Senka and Tihomir that almost lasts a lifetime and a novel about ly comic, Feric writes about the true love; the kind of “funny” or the sexual revolution in the sixties and the seventies. Ferić covers strange love that transcends boundaries, questions moral laws, all aspects of life – happiness, love, sorrow, old age and mortality. constantly mocking the tragic nature of death.

The former class of a high school in Zagreb will meet after many years The story focuses on professor Stanislav Bernstein (named after the to go on a graduation anniversary trip. The “Tramuntana” motor boat author’s maternal grandfather), a man going through midlife crisis and is now taking these men and women in their mid-sixties to the Dal- the breakdown of a marriage. In this “infantile state”, he finds himself matian coast for a second time. The main character is Tihomir Romar, falling in love with ill third grade high-school girl in the school in which a gynaecologist who describes his story in numerous flashbacks. It fo- he works. What makes this novel tragicomic is an immature forty year cuses on his fatal love affair with his former classmate Senka, which old man grasping after what could be the last flame of love, and an takes on almost destructive dimensions and creates hell on earth for extremely mature young woman who sometimes acts like his mother. three people. With biting irony and black humour, Zoran Ferić draws Illness has made her mature early and made her outlook on life real- a picture of the golden youth in Tito’s Yugoslavia; descendants of a new privileged class, more influ- istic, whereas midlife crisis has turned him into an overaged teenager. During a graduation trip to enced by the new sexual mores of a social revolution. This second trip will reanimate a network of old Greece, they wander through the Agora, making love in a hotel in Omonia square and hiding their re- and oppressed relationships – the forgotten behaviour patterns of adolescence will be coupled with lationship from students and colleagues. Although Ferić’s theme is provocative and the relationship a burgeoning senility. essentially comic, he is writing about true love, and not mere titillation; the kind of “funny” or strange love that transcends boundaries, questions moral laws, constantly mocking the tragic nature of death With lightness of touch and piercing wit, Ferić covers all aspects of life – happiness, love, sorrow, old and history in the exact places where such history has been created. This love is not incestuous as in age and mortality. Frisher’s novel Homo Faber, even though it possesses something of true Greek tragedy. This novel was honoured with four of the most prestigious Croatian literary awards: the Jutarnji List The Children of Patras has been translated into German, Italian and Slovenian. Award for best work of prose fiction, the Vladimir Nazor Award for literature, the Zagreb City Award and Kiklop Award for best work of prose fiction. In Croatia, it was published four times by Jutarnji List, Profil International and V.B.Z. The book was shortlisted for the Jutarnji List Award and the Kiklop Prize in the Novel of the Year cat- egory. The Children of Patras is one of the most beautiful novels on love that we have lately read. Although it is about the “forbidden love” between a professor and an ill student, moral watchdogs can remain calm be- cause everything that happens between them is love, leaping over what is merely grounded in literature. Jagna Pogačnik, JutarnJi list 28 |Zoran corto literary Ferić agency Zoran Ferić Rights Guide | 29 THE DEATH OF THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL AN ANGEL IN OFFSIDE

Naklada MD, 2003, 198 pages Naklada MD, 2000, 174 pages

• complete translation available in English, German, Italian • one short story available in English • complete translation available in German Translation rights sold: USA (Autumn Hill Books), Germany (Folio Verlag), Italy (Nikita Editore), Slove- nia (V.B.Z.), Turkey (Dora Basim Yaym) Translation rights sold: Germany (Folio Verlag), Spain (Baile del sol Ediciones), Ukraine (Folio), Slovenia A “Mediterranean Twin Peakes”, this social novel with a distincive crime-plot powerfuly provokes a deeply entranched bourgeois Declared as the book of the decade in Croatia while being on best- taste but is also an allegory for the atmosphere in the entire coun- seller list for more than two years, this extraordinary collection of try of the 90s as the war and death find their very unispected and short stories presents author`s recognizable grotesque world but unusual ways to present. offering us a more complex and consistent structure.

The title and the last story in his collection An Angel in Offside has be- With his second collection of short stories, An Angel in Offside, hon- come the first chapter of this novel. Critics generally agree that Ferić’s oured with the two most prestigious literary awards of the year (the work is exceptional, which may not be to everyone’s taste due to the Gjalski Award and the Jutarnji List Award), Zoran Ferić confirmed his theme and methods. Indeed, the novel, in certain aspects, strongly status as one of the most important contemporary Croatian prose writ- provokes a deeply entrenched bourgeois taste. ers. The book went on to become a bestseller, which is not characteris- It is a social novel with a distinctive crime-plot. Its main character Fero, tic of short story collections, retaining first place on a bestseller list for a pathologist, is investigating the death of a Romanian transvestite two years. Critics unanimously agreed that this collection of stories was whom they called the Little match girl because he helped spread a ve- extraordinary, while, according to a survey, it was declared as a book of nereal disease which causes burning urination. However, this plot is the decade. only a skeleton in which bizarre characters and events during the war period on the island of Rab are While the stories from his first collection have a greater focus on plot and an unfortunate combination intertwined. The island itself is an allegory for the atmosphere in the entire country, shattered by the of circumstances, depicting characters as God’s or Satan’s toys, his second work puts greater emphasis roar of ammunition, in which death occurs in the most bizarre ways. on character as the most important element of stories which are here longer, more complex and usual- Critics have called this novel a “Mediterranean Twin Peaks” where fear and paranoia are spiced with ly consist of several, smaller stories as chapters. Themes such as death, illness and phobias are present sex and humour. here as well, including Ferić’s recognizable grotesque world, although the structure is quite different; The novel The Death of the Little Match Girl has been translated into German, English, Slovenian and perhaps a nascent novel, perhaps a heap of truncated parts. Italian. One of the stories here, which is thematically related to hypochondria, is set in the waiting room of In Croatia, the book was published in three editions by Naklada MD, Profil International and V.B.Z. an AIDS clinic that almost becomes a theatre of the absurd. Another is about the branding Venetian galley slaves which makes reference to Mann’s Death in Venice, while the title story depicts the darkly comic funeral of a ten year old girl on the island of Rab. An Angel in Offside has been translated into German, Spanish, Ukrainian and Slovenian. The title story was awarded with the AGM Award for best story of Plima magazine, while the book was awarded with the Gjalski Award and the Jutarnji List Award in 2000. In Croatia, the book was published in four editions by Naklada MD, Profil International, Jutarnji List and V.B.Z. Ferić is a writer with a crazy worm wriggling inside his head and whose work has a specific taste and smell; in the rather sterile landscape of contemporary Croatian prose there is a deficit of such writers. Jurica Pavičić

Zoran Ferić wrote a really brilliant book of short stories, proving himself to be one of the best Croatian prose writers. Delimir rešicki 30 |Zoran corto literary Ferić agency Rights Guide | 31 WALT DISNEY’S MOUSETRAP Zoran Ferić Born 1961 in Zagreb. He graduated Croatian language and literature and works Naklada MD, 1996, 124 pages as a professor in gymnasium and is among the most widely read contempo- rary Croatian writers. His first short stories are being published in newspapers • one short story available in English from 1984, but his first collectionMišolovka Walta Disneya (Walt Disney’s Mouse- • complete translation available in German trap) is first published relatively late, in 1996. His second short story collection Anđeo u ofsajdu (An Angel in Offside), published in 2000 received prestigeous Translation rights sold: Germany (Folio Verlag), Poland (Pogranicze Ksaver Šandor Gjalski Prize in 2000 and the Jutarnji List Award for the best Sejny), Ukraine (Lavov), Slovenia (...), France (Éditions de L’Eclisse) work of prose fiction. For Walt Disney’s Mousetrap he receive the first and the last Dekada Prize founded to praise the fiction written in the past decade. His The ten stories in Walt Disney’s Mousetrap present Ferić as a third book and the first novel Smrt Djevojčice sa žigicama (The Death of the Little brilliant analyst of stupidity, misconceptions, malice and vulgari- Match Girl) is published on 2003. Two years after he publishes his second novel ty. His revelatory stories hit us right there where it hurts the most Djeca Patrasa (The Children of Patras). His last novel Kalendar Maja (Maya Calendar) is published in 2011 and where laughter – freezes. and by then received several Awards – the Jutarnji List Award for the best work of prose fiction in DIE WOCHE 2011, the annual Vladimir Nazor Award and Kiklop Prize for the best novel of the year. He is also the author of two collections of newspapers columns: Otpusno pismo (The Letter of Dis- Behind the title of one of these stories, standing as a paradigm for the charge) and Apsurd je zarazna bolest (Absurdity is an Infectious Disease). world in the entire book, Ferić collected narratives which make use of black humor, the grotesque and an exposition of the absurd, in order to His novels were translated to English, German, Polish, Ukrainian, Slovenian and Italian and his short create a world so close to ours that the reader might feel a considerable story collections were translated on English, Hungarian, Polish, Slovakian, Spanish and Italian. chill. Stories of gravediggers playing with doctors of science from the He works and lives in Zagreb. Institute of Atomic Physics situated near the cemetery, of the man who uses his Mickey Mouse watch to rape a ten year old girl and the married couple trying to overcome their son’s suicide with music. Among the characters here is a man whose parents were killed in the war and Ambrozije Testen, a Franciscan monk who paints an act of a very obese woman. Each of these stories explicitly shows how people can be confined by body and history, which acts as a source of their misfortune. These texts, sometimes composed as classical novels and sometimes as short psychological stories, take a comic approach to death and illness, while the war in Croatia during the nineties and its trage- dy is marked as a visible yet unrevealed place; something that arouses strong emotions, but is never talked about. Symbolic images related to these texts are Auschwitz and Disneyland. And it is clear that Disneyland is by no means a nicer place than the most notorious concentration camp in history. Walt Disney’s Mousetrap has been translated into German, Polish, Ukranian and Slovenian. In Croatia, the book was published in three editions by Naklada MD, Profil International and V.B.Z. It is the first and, unfortunately, the last book which won the Dekada Award, founded to honor the most influential book of the decade. Although the award was discontinued in Croatia, it still empha- sizes the awareness of the importance of Ferić’s book for contemporary Croatian prose. The stories in this book retain some basic features of his earlier texts and although displaying a greater deepth, the grotesquerie and absurdity of his narrative world remain. Ferić is a lover of literary parables. What is made emphatic in the text is its refined construction. Ferić often combines motifs into a single unit, creating space for unexpected twists. He often models his stories according to the principles of music; they develop into a rondo of naughtiness, while the author, despite providing readers with a picture of human tragedy, using laconic sarcasm, he opens spaces for laughter to run free. Der StanDarD

Ferić’s prose is insidious, dangerous and beautiful as a snake. A real treat. FrakFurter allgemeine Zeitung

Very amusing, very whimsical in all cases, and sometimes macabre: these ten ultimately grotesque stories are the pure enjoyment of reading. ÖkS, cultural 32 | corto literary agency Rumena Bužarovska Rights Guide | 33 Rumena Bužarovska WISDOM TOOTH Blesok, Skopje, 2010, 140 pages MY HUSBAND Translation rights sold: Croatia (Algoritam) Ili-Ili, Skopje, 2015, 130 pages (second edition) Translations of stories also available in German, English, and Serbian. Blesok, Skopje, 2014, 180 pages (first edition) Uncompromising in its dissection of the unfairness of the everyday Translation rights sold: Croatia (V.B.Z.), Slovenia (Modrijan Založba), Serbia (BOOKA Publishing) reality of the vulnerable and disenfranchised, Bu􀀄􀀄􀀄􀀄􀀄�s acute- ly observed stories are absurd, poignant and painfully funny. The Translations of stories also available in English, Croatian, Serbian and French. coherent simplicity and psychological complexity of her writing has been compared to the style of Alice Munro, Raymond Carver Bold and gutsy, the 11 first-person narratives relate tales of and Lorrie Moore. self-deception, vanity and hypocrisy, set in Macedonia with its own idiosyncratic problems and the post-communist, transitional The stories in the collection Wisdom Tooth offer readers a kaleidoscope reality of the patriarchal tradition of the Balkans. of experiences from the patriarchal, post-transitional society typical of the Balkans and other Eastern European countries. The protagonists Rumena Bužarovska’s short story collection bears the deceptive title: My usually lack power: social, economic, and even physical. Most are wom- Husband. Although husbands feature in every story, in fact it is the lives en and children, though also men who cannot adapt to the system of of the women who narrate them – wives, mistresses, mothers, widows – newly defined values. Their struggle to fit in puts them in dangerous, about which the collection is chiefly concerned. embarrassing, or simply painfully real situations. Reminiscent of the stylistic straightforwardness of Raymond Carver, the A woman must confront an embarrassing sexual problem in the de- playfulness of Lorrie Moore, the ambiguities and subtleties characteris- plorable and unfeeling conditions of a run-down state hospital; a wife and mother, keen to avoid tic of Alice Munro, and of the grotesque characters and violent epipha- attending such a facility, conceals money from her husband and son in order to seek treatment from nies of Flannery O’Connor, these stories move the reader to both tears a private dentist; a young girl reveals the trauma of having to bear the consequences of her parents’ of compassion and hilarity. Although the subtly presented political and criminal profiteering; a story told from a young girl’s perspective foregrounds the conflict between cultural contexts affect the characters’ personal choices and actions, the socially conscious parents and manipulated child – a conflict ultimately resolved through violence; dilemmas and frustrations they face are universal. and a husband and father fails to protect his family due to his physical and social inadequacy. The uncompromising first-person narratives in My Husband focus on women who appear to be telling stories about their husbands: a bad poet; a doting father; a husband who blames his son’s ignoble behavior on his wife’s genes; a deceitful spouse; an impotent partner who procures lovers for REVIEWS AND PRAISES: the fulfillment of his wife’s needs; a deceased husband… Yet through the storytelling these women reveal more about themselves, the environment they live in, as well as the specific social norms that There is much left unsaid in these stories, but things are still clear. This act of narrating between the lines determine their oppressed – and frequently limited – frame of mind. Due to the highly subjective is a rare storytelling ability and skill. The stories from this collection are compact in the way that a good narration of the unreliable storytellers, readers play an active role in evaluating ‘the truth’ behind short story demands economy; they are simple and open-ended, dynamic and sometimes tense, showing the characters’ actions and thoughts. What propels further interest in the reader is actively witness- how the everyday and what is seemingly ordinary (such as a toothache) can also be compelling, provided ing the painful process throughout which the characters put themselves in absurd, humiliating or we can recognize it. disturbing situations. jaGna POGačniK, JutaRnJi liSt

These stories are a delicious discovery, essential even – if you take reading seriously. REVIEWS AND PRAISES: TeOfil Pančić, JutaRnJi liSt It has been some time since a collection such as My Husband has appeared in Macedonian literature – compact, complex, coherent, and with brilliantly resolved narrative complications. It follows clearly defined footprints through the sand dunes of pain, through the hills of silence of what remains unsaid, through the dark everyday features of contemporary real and fictional life. Olivera KjOrvezirOsKa, Sloboden pechat

Fear and lies (illusions/blindness) are the basis on which the characters are constructed. Sometimes these characters tell small lies (don’t tell anyone, my husband can’t find out; don’t tell anyone, the neighbors could find out), unaware of the consequences of these apparently harmless lies. At other times they tell huge lies, they deceive, they ridicule their closest ones behind their backs, acting like hypocrites. New problems arise from these issues, and in this way domestic violence, nationalism, kitsch and unpalatable art are dramatized. GjOKO zdravesKi, RepeR 34 | corto literary agency Rights Guide | 35

Rumena Bužarovska Aleš Čar Rumena Bužarovska (born 1981 in Skopje) is one of the leading new voices of contemporary short fiction in Macedonia. She has ON TOLERABILITY published three short story collections: Scribbles (Chkrtki, 2007), Wisdom Tooth (Osmica, 2010) and My Husband (Mojot maž, 2014), Beletrina, 2011, 257 pages as well as a study on humor in contemporary American and Macedonian short fiction What’s( Funny: Theories of Humor Applied to the Short Story, 2012). She is a literary translator from English • 30-pages excerpt available in English into Macedonian, having translated authors such as Lewis Car- Translation rights sold: Croatia (V.B.Z.), Serbia (Zavet) roll, J.M. Coetzee, Truman Capote, Charles Bukowski and Richard Gwyn. She is Assistant Professor of American Literature at the A novel of complex structure that potrays one family’s extensive State University of Skopje. saga, following four generations through a period of hundred Her stories have been published in various magazines and anthol- years, scattered throughout Europe. ogies in English, German, Croatian, Serbian, Bulgarian and French Incest, sadism and masochism, adultery and attempted murder translations, while her short story collection Wisdom Tooth was within the family, soldiers and smugglers, bloody battles and poli- published in Croatia in 2015. ti cal games, European aristocracy and escaped SS officers, cruel mothers and humiliated fathers, drugs, alcohol and extramarital chil dren are parts of this novel’s complex storyline. Following the fate of his characters, the author portraits how, be- hind the scenes of bloody wars, political upheaval and constant change of state names, national anthems and flags, much larger, more cruel and more painful family dramas are taking place.

Families have always been the best place for those small everyday hells that, behind a carefully pre- served facade of the apparent normality and harmlessness, mercilessly and in all sorts of ways elixate their members down to nothing. In the novel the narrator – a member of the family but not in the center of happening – tries to pull together the pieces of several generations of his family history. This is triggered by an event that might seem harmless: the visit of an aunt with whom no one had been in touch for years; yet this visit makes the whole construction of the family go completely off the rails, especial- ly the world of the grandfather and his daughter (the aunt). The main story centers on these two characters. The novel is a sort of a family album whereas its pictures show horrible things. It is also a chronicle of a family of three generations and as such delves into the historical context of the 20th century as well as it reflects various intimate relationships between the individuals within the family. The grandfather served in four different armies, flags and uniforms, and once the atrocities of the war come to an end he thinks a peaceful life waits ahead, but this is only the beginning of the whole array of problems, challenges and tribulations brought to the surface by love on the intimate family level, as the writer introduces in a very refined way Grandpa’s five daughters into the story. His first daughter proves that love can build you a house, but the ‘golden cage’ that was supposed to provide a roof over the heads of three generations, soon starts turning into a ,hellish trap’. Suddenly tolerability, so plain and so human in every respect, rather than shear luck, repeatedly shown to be an illusion, becomes the skill required to survive.

REVIEWS AND PRAISES: The novel consists of inner elements that rotate and intertwine constantly. It is as a long poem in prose dealing with issues that we usually keep silent. Aleš Čar wrote a great novel. Dario GrGić, Croatian radio

A fearful, monumental work of Aleš Čar. Gabriela babnik, airbeletrina

Stylistic charmingly written novel, straightforwardly, words stoning. GreGa kališnik, nedelo 36 |Aleš corto literaryČar agency Aleš Čar Rights Guide | 37 MADE IN SLOVENIA OUT OF ORDER

Beletrina, 2007, 190 pages Beletrina, 2003, 168 pages

Translation rights sold: Poland (Biblioteka Balkan), Serbia (Rende), • Two stories translated in English Czech Republic (Duhapress), Macedonia (Magor) • Three stories translated in German • One story translated in Spanish In short story collection Made in Slovenia Aleš Čar did something that is very difficult to do – he caught Zeitgeist on three printed Translation rights sold: Poland (Wojciech Domachowski), Croatia pages (which is the length of the stories), he caught daily routines (Fraktura) into fiction starting with public news accessible to everyone and finishing with private worlds and little stories with an emphasis on Out of order is a shorty story collection with modern anti-heroes the individuals and their destiny. who are striving for safety and luck being disabled to achieve it by their tragic everyday life and the remains of transition. Very The short stories collection Made in Slovenia is sort of a logical continua- critical to characters. passiveness and addictions, Čar puts to tion of Čar’s previous prose works, though at the same time it represents question the status of young middle class population, their role a new level in his opus. This is due to his circularly concluded concept in the urban city life as well as their resignation and unfulfilled with its own rules. Each story opens with a quote from the press in the emotional relationships. year 2006 and that very quote serves as a trigger of the story, sort of recordings of the reality turning into fiction. This quotes are actually a simple local chronicle, Made in Slovenia chronicle, yet at the Out of Order is a collection of 14 short stories not connected to each other regarding their order but same time the chronicle of the present global moment we live in, regardless of our state borders. very much connected in terms of contents, issues and their typical anti-hero of this century. Through The reality, which at a certain point breaks into inner worlds, crushes at individual micro universes Aleš Čar’s short stories we meet urban population of Ljubljana being totally lost in their business and and changes them but nevertheless leaves enough space for everything that has nothing to do with private relations. His characters are in their early thirties somewhere between student life and inde- this reality. Fifty stories of this book very precisely describe main neuralgic everyday events, various pendence, trying to rebuild their old relationships or find new and happier ones. situations which try to comprise the reality. The cruel, but at the same time, sympathetic narrator very realistically shows the deterioration of Actually, the reality is reflected in the intimate worlds of his heroes whereas the effect of these reflec- long-time relationships and marriages, relations with children, sex, alcohol and sedatives addiction, tions may sometimes be comical and sometimes tragic, sometimes on the edge of the surrealism, but depressions and financial problems. always very successful. Čar is a great master of minimalism – as he proved with his previous works His modern anti-heroes are striving for safety and luck being disabled to achieve it by their tragic already – a writer who manages to write a complete story and build a complete world on a very small everyday life and the remains of transition. At the end of every story they remain all alone with even space. more bitterness and fuzziness. They are determined by passiveness and everyday routines but can do Made in Slovenia collection shows an author who is the analytical eye of our time, a prosaic who very only very little or nothing against it. well knows what to do with this tragic reality impudently offering itself as literary topic and who Very critically to characters’ passiveness and addictions, Čar puts to question the status of young very subtly, so to say filigree, builds the worlds of fiction that function also above it and goes much middle class population, their role in the urban city life as well as their resignation and unfulfilled further than the quotes the stories grow out of. Čar is a master of wide range of emotions, tonalities emotional relationships. and intensities; he simply knows how to write a witty story that is neither banal or tragic nor pathetic It is a brilliant, interesting and splendidly constructed short story collection which you are going to or grotesque, without crossing the border of good taste, realistically keeping the story functioning as read with great pleasure. good fiction. His writing is full of witty dialogs, convincing descriptions, suggestive atmosphere and urban language. REVIEWS AND PRAISES: REVIEWS AND PRAISES: In my opinion, this is shortphrose culmination of our literary season. Urban VoVk, literatura Leaving Slovenian pathos aside or not, short stories of Aleš Čar present our small city without redundant sentimentality. They show a wide range of mentally different habitats, who despite their difference contin- In Out of Order there is excellent, extremely good writing, which expandes enormous amount of reading ually melt into collective picture of our time. pleasure to a reading public, but at the same time, this is hard, self-centered and therefore challenging Maša Pfeifer, airbeletrina material, which for already mentioned action (for many) requires enormous favour: a disciplined reader. Daniel Vončina, Mladina made in Slovenia is a book which does not give any answers but if we listen carefully it does offer deepest existential questions. For this reason and due to its unique composition the book remains intriguing, open Čar`s stories are based on a thoughtful scheme of links between the atmosphere of the starting point, an accurate and up-to-date. outline of the area, increasing tension and uncertainty of the conflict with the perception of mental imbalance, re- Tanja PeTrič, literatura sulting in mutual contact (or breaking contact) and in a surprising, even ambiguous or simply transferred plant and metaphor ending, bitter, mocking or grotesque point. HelGa GlUšič, delo 38 | corto literary agency Rights Guide | 39

Aleš Čar Davor Mandić Aleš Čar (born in 1971) is a Slovenian writer, screenwriter and edi- tor. Čar was born and brought up in the small town Idrija located ONE MUST IMAGINE ME HAPPY in the Goriška region in the western part of Slovenia. He studied comparative literature and has worked as an editor in Ljubljana. Naklada Ljevak, 2014 He was the editor-in-chief of the (now dormant) magazine Balca- nis and hosted a talk show about humanistic issues and the artis- • complete translation in English tic and cultural topics on the Slovenian national TV. For five years he worked as an editor in the culture section of the Slovene dai- The stories in short stories collection One Must Imagine Me Happy ly newspapers Dnevnik and in the following two years as an edi- are like a well-groomed, aristocratic English garden. There are no tor-in-chief of Objektiv (the most read Saturday edition of Dnevnik). excesses that stick out and bore the reader, no redundant sophist- Furthermore, he was also one of the four leaders of the program ry, or turning a short story into a subject for a doctoral dissertation. of the Cultural Capital of Europe Maribor 2012 being in charge of the digital dimension of the project named LifeTouch. Among oth- Davor Mandić could have written a different book, perhaps a guide to ers, this very successful project consisted of Perspectives & Reflec- spearfishing or gardening. Even, if things really went South, a semi-autobi- tions – blogs written by international authors. In 1997 he won Best Debut Novel Award presented by ographical work, which would make him look smarter, more well-read and the Union of Slovenian Publishers and Booksellers for his novel Igra angelov in netopirjev (When Bats beautiful than he really is. No one would say a word; the guy’s writing is Dance with Angels). His second novel Pasji tango (Dog’s Tango) and the last novel O znosnosti (On Tole- nice, he has a good sense for literature, only the occasional librarian would ra bility) were both among five finalists/nominees for the 2012 Kresnik Award. In 2007 he wrote the think how they might have expected something different from him. short story collection Made in Slovenia (Made in Slovenia). His another short story collection V okvari And yet, no one knowing how or why for it is still a bit of a mystery, Davor Mandić wrote a book not only for himself: the reader will easily find something deliciously literate, sociable, surreal and uncompromising in these beautiful stories. The ticking of the clock on top of the wardrobe is a bit different after reading these stories: the light breeze blew from the open balcony door and ruffled the curtains. Mandić is both witty and delicately melancholy, and this has resulted in a book ready to feed you silly plans, glorious failures, fantastic dreams and other single-celled miracles in a long afternoon.

REVIEWS AND PRAISES: A writer who concludes his (debut) collection with a story in which Story – yes, with a capital letter, since the story itself becomes the protagonist – quarrels with him, even tells him to go f** himself, is either a certified postmodernist, or simply funny. Davor Mandić is luckily the latter. In the same concluding story, which we would call auto-poetic, if this phrase were not contaminated by inaccurate use, Mandić says: “But I need a twist, a fantastic twist. What use do I have for another story with a social conscience? Since you know ev- erything, you must know I have plenty of those. What I need is more of a shift, more of the fantastic. That’s what I need.” Transition and fantasy, not a bad book recommendation. Teofil Pančić, JutarnJi list

What we have is a very interesting, high-quality and evocative collection of stories which is very hard to be accurately placed on the existing literary short story scene. Jagna Pogačnik, JutarnJi list 40 | corto literary agency Davor Mandić Davor Mandić (born 1976) is an up-and-coming name in Croatian literature who, after his first remarkable poem collection Bridges / Mostovi (Croatian Writer’s Society, 2009), published his first book of stories One Must Imagine Me Happy (Ljevak, 2014) which was unani- mously declared original, witty, cleverly written and unique among the usual practice by Croatian and regional critics. This book earned Mandić a grant from the Ministry of culture which was also the case with his next book, a novel that is being published in the fall of 2016. Mandić lives and works in Rijeka as a journalist and deputy editor of culture in Novi List, a Croatian national daily newspaper.

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