Season 6 - Ep. 125 Around the World Reading: Croatia with guest Ivana Murk

This week, we are headed to Croatia to speak with Ivana Murk who gives us a window into her life as a child growing up, learning to read both the Cyrillic alphabet which Slavic languages are based on and the Latin alphabet. She learned English in school starting in 3rd grade and now she now reads books in both Croatian and English. We talk with her about Croatian authors who you might want to find translations for if possible, why the skill of a book translator is so important, and what authors you have probably heard of who are particularly popular in her country.

We feel it would be helpful to give you just a brief little summary of Croatian history in the last 50 years that is most relevant to this episode. Croatia was a part of the former Yugoslavia, which also included Serbia, Bosnia, Hercegovina, Slovenia, Macedonia, and Montenegro. In 1991, Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia. This did not happen peacefully. This was followed by the Bosnia War from 1992-1995 which pitted Croatians, Bosnians, and Serbians against each other and has been called the bloodiest event in Europe since World War II. Geographically, Croatia is very close to Italy to the West by way of the Adriatric Sea, Austria and Hungary to the north, and Bosnia to the West.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:
1- Girl at War by Sara Nović
2- Chasing a Croatian Girl by Cody McClain Brown
3- The Famous Five by Enid Blyton
4- The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
5- Grimm's Fairy Tales 
6- Croatian Tales of Long Ago by Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić
7- Various poetry by Dobriša Cesarić
8- Various poetry by Vesna Parun
9- Gordana by Marija Jurić (pen name: Zagorka) and other series
10- Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
11- Various works by Elif Shafak
12- Beartown by Fredrik Backman
13- Anxious People Fredrik Backman
14- Various works by Colleen Hoover
15- Dark Mother Earth by Kristian Novak
16- The Gypsy, But The Most Beautiful by Kristian Novak
17- Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore
18- This is How it Always Is by Laurie Frankel
19- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
20- A Boy's Life by Robert R. McCammon
21- Shantaram by Gregory Davis Roberts
22- Odin's Child by Siri Pettersen
23- Love Stories by Trent Dalton
24- The Guncle by Steven Rowley
25- Every Bone a Prayer by Ashley Blooms
26- Where I Can't Follow by Ashley Blooms