Tvornica Hrvata

A mother, aunt, grandfather and a twelve-year-old boy face the grumpiness of new neighbors and the weight of an existence condemned to humanitarian aid, until one day the mother overcomes the administrative "loopholes" and sovereignly sits at the head of a Croat factory! Under the chimney of that factory, instant Croats are produced at full steam and documents that mean salvation are procured. Well, who wouldn't pay for that? The boy in whose voice this novel is narrated grew up overnight and occasionally manages to surprise with his seriousness. I think that the most fucked up thing in war is to grow up, he will conclude, and we really have no arguments with which we could deny him.

Nebojša Lujanović wrote a novel in a convincing voice, with a feeling for nuances of small details on the edges of tragedy and comedy, about people who can hardly agree on the color of the wardrobe in their former home, because events suppress memories, but they will never lose their spirit until the end because have brought from their past, if nothing else, an indestructible life logic - always some dick, that's what life consists of. This is a novel that still ends with laughter, perhaps because it is clear that its protagonists will not become someone else - even though they are asked to do so and they themselves strive for it - but will remain themselves. And it's good that it is so, for life and for the story.