"Zletka" by Maja Hrgovic (2012, translated from Croatian)

Information on Women in Translation Month - August, 2017

Works I have read so far for Women In Translation Month - August, 2017

1.  "Happy New Year" by Ajaat Cour - Translated from Punjabi

2. "The Floating Forest" by Natsuo Kirino- Translated from Japanese

3. " A Home Near the Sea" by Kamala Das - Translated from Malayalam

4. "Maria" by Dacia Maraini- Translated from Italian

5. "Zletka" by Maja Hrgovic - Translated from Croatian

So far I am having quite a good time through reading short stories for Women in Translation Month, August, 2017. (Full details are in the link above.)  Yesterday I posted on a story focusing on lesbian lovers in Italy in the 1960s.  By coincidence today's story is about a casual lesbian encounter in war ravaged Zagreb, Croatia.  As the story opens our narrator, a young single woman is walking through Zagreb, it is a place of poverty, rundown and grimy with homeless everywhere.  The narrator was unable to wash her hair as her apartment has only cold water.  She stops in a beauty parlor, only a striking young woman, Zletka is working.  She enjoys the sensual feel of Zletka's hands running through the warm water in her hair.  She returns home but later in the evening decides to go to a disco and runs into Zletka.  It is a very loud place.  They end up returning to Zletka's apartment, spending the night having sex.  Zletka's ten year old daughter wakes them in the morning, asking the narrator what type of tea she would like.  The girl, Milo, is delightful, not all shy or surprised by the sleep over guest.

They part without a future commitment.  This story is basically one day in the life of a young urban Croatian woman.  I read it twice and would read more by the author.  The story was translated by Tomislav Kuzmanovie.  I read this story in a very good anthology with seven stories by women, Best European Fiction, 2012.

MAJA HRGOVIĆ was born in 1980 in Split, Croatia. She studied theater and women’s studies. Since 2003 she has worked as a journalist in the culture section of the Novi List Daily, and has been a member of the editorial board at Zarez—a Journal of Cultural and Social Affairs, where she publishes literary reviews. In 2009 she was awarded first prize for journalistic excellence organized by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Reporting Network (BIRN). Her work has also been published in magazines and news portals such as Nulačetvorka, Cunterview, Kulturpunkt, Op.a, Grazia, and Libela. She regularly writes for the portal ZaMirZINE, concentrating on women’s rights and their treatment in the media. Her first collection of short stories, Pobjeđuje onaj kojem je manje stalo (He Wins Who Cares Less), was published in 2010.- from Best European Fiction, 2012.

Mel u

"Zlatka" by Maja Hrgovic (2012) Project 196 - Croatia

                                                           Croatia

Project 196, my attempt to read and post on a short story from each of the 196 countries of the world, will run up until November 15, 2016.  So far I have covered 36 countries.  It may not be possible to complete this.  In covering South America, I was unable to find online in Englsh short stories by authors from Suriname and Paraquay. I will check periodically for newly published works and am open to referrals.   I have decided to do a tour of countries on the Adriatic Sea, inspired by Ruffington Bousweau's classic (1937) travel book, Adriatic Agonies. 

Croatia has been a place of turmoil and sectarian violence for a long time.  Like the last story I posted on for Project 196, set in contemporary Montenegro, "Zlatka" is another story centering around a character's attempt to deal with the urban decay brought on by long years of unrest, poverty, and war. "Zlatka" is set in the capital of Croatia, Zagreb.  In a captivating very sensuous open sequence the female narrator is in a salon getting her hair washed  by Zlatka, a very attractive woman.  Later that night the narrator goes to a nightclub she often frequents. The walk to get their through a poetically rendered urban miasma of blight is really brilliant.  The nightclub is a place to get drunk amidst the techno-blast.  She by coincidence runs into the woman who earlier in the day did her hair.  They become lovers in an exquisitely rendered scene.  The presence of Zlatka's daughter is a marvelous touch that adds great poignancy and reality to the story.  There are great mysteries left untold in this marvelous story.  

"Zlatka" is about escaping pain and loneliness in sensation, about growing up in an urban nightmare world.   

I read this story in Best European Fiction 2012.

Maja Hrgović

MAJA HRGOVIĆ was born in Split, Croatia, in 1980. She studied theatre and women's studies. Since 2003 she has worked as a journalist in the culture section of the Novi List Daily, and from 2005 to 2008 she was a member of the editorial board at Zarez, a Journal of Cultural and Social Affairs, where she publishes literary reviews.

In 2009 she was awarded first prize for journalistic excellence by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN). Her work has also been published in magazines and news portals such as Nulačetvorka,Cunterview, Kulturpunkt, Op.a, Grazia, andLibela. She regularly writes for the portalZamirzine, focusing on women's rights and their treatment in the media. Her first collection of short stories Pobjeđuje onaj kojem je manje stalo was published in 2010.

I have located one of her short stories online and will soon read it.