The first time I realized that I wanted to be a writer was early in my childhood, when I found out that I’m fascinated by reading and exploring the literary world. The first real book   ‘’without pictures’’ I read was Pippi Longstocking. I read it for around ten times in a row. I just couldn’t let it go. Her character and the fictional world she lived in amazed me. Then, a few years later, my elementary school published my first little poem collection named It will be tremendous when I grow up. It has recently inspired a musical in Zagreb. But it was not until my late twenties when I really realized that all I wanted to do in life was to be a writer. It was at that point that I asked myself what I really wanted to do and who I wanted to become. Then I sent  some of my short stories to a public call, and  I won the prize. That led to publishing my first story collection, which was, to my own surprise, a great success.

Literature as possibility of dialogue

In my work, I always talk about the same issues that are relevant in a contemporary society. What I think is important is actually the way you describe those contemporary issues. It doesn’t matter whether you write about something set in the past, the future or some imaginary world, we always talk about our present time, only in reflections. I would therefore describe my writing as the escape into the truth. Language is of great importance to me. As a reader, I really like poetic language, poetic novels and stories, so it’s really important to me as a writer too.

Literature is a possibility of dialogue, the way to describe the truth to ourselves. When the real world isn’t enough, literature can be a comfort or the way to understand and explain the world, for both, those who write and those who read. The role of literature in today’s world is not easy. I sometimes feel that  we’re living at the beginning of the end of the world. I believe so because it’s just not challenging to write about great disasters. It’s also challenging to find hope, reason, love and sense and to put all of it into writing.

Literature is the proof that anyone, worldwide, can understand the thoughts and experience the emotions of other people, in Croatia, in Guadalajara, in the east, in the north.That is the quiet, but great power which brings people together, even when the politics doesn’t. Despite the different languages, we could say that on some spiritual and emotional level, literature is one of the most powerful social networks.

My first novel has  been translated into Spanish. Adiós Vaquero is  about a girl who returns to a small Mediterranean town. While she’s seeking the truth about her brother, an  spaghetti western is being filmed nearby. The novel is set in the contemporary context, but everything in the protagonist's life starts to resemble a cowboy movie. Ultimately, it’s a story about adolescent peer violence and a novel about the crime without punishment, the crime that the society commits against the individual.

Like many other readers and writers in Croatia, I grew up reading the great Latin American writers. As a result, I’ve realized that even though we live far away, have a lot in common: magic realism, but also a passionate and relaxed way of life. It’s interesting that it comes with a contradictorily terrible political situation. It would, therefore, be my great pleasure if Mexican and Latin American readers decided to explore our literature and find out that what I’ve realized about our similarities is true.