Baba_Yaga_laid_an_egg_Ugresic
2011 Nominated

Baba Yaga Laid an Egg

artwork-image

ABOUT
THE BOOK

Baba Yaga is an old hag who lives in a house built on chicken legs and kidnaps small children. She is one of the most pervasive and powerful creatures in all mythology. She appears in many forms: as Pupa, a tricky, cantankerous old woman who keeps her legs tucked into a huge furry boot; as a trio of mischievous elderly women who embark on the trip of a lifetime to a hotel spa; and as a villainous flock of ravens, black hens and magpies infected with the H5N1 virus. But what story does Baba Yaga have to tell us today?

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Dubravka
Ugrešić

Dubravka Ugrešić is the winner of several major literary prizes including the Austrian State Prize for European Literature 1998 and Neustadt International Prize for Literature 2016 and finalist of Man Booker International Prize 2009. Ugresic lives in Amsterdam.

Dubravka Ugrešić is the winner of several major literary prizes including the Austrian State Prize for European Literature 1998 and Neustadt International Prize for Literature 2016 and finalist of Man Booker International Prize 2009. Ugresic lives in Amsterdam.

ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Celia
Hawkesworth

Celia Hawkesworth has translated nearly forty books from the Serbo-Croatian, including Bosnian Chronicle by Ivo Andrić; The Museum of Unconditional Surrender by Dubravka Ugrešić; Belladonna by Daša Drndić, which was short-listed for the Oxford Weidenfeld prize in 2018; and Adios, Cowboy by Olja Savičević. She lives in London.

Celia Hawkesworth has translated nearly forty books from the Serbo-Croatian, including Bosnian Chronicle by Ivo Andrić; The Museum of Unconditional Surrender by Dubravka Ugrešić; Belladonna by Daša Drndić, which was short-listed for the Oxford Weidenfeld prize in 2018; and Adios, Cowboy by Olja Savičević. She lives in London.

ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Mark
Thompson

Mark Thompson has been living in Croatia for several months. He is the author of The Paper House: The Ending of Yugoslavia, and the translator of Claudio Magris’s Inferences from a Sabre.

Mark Thompson has been living in Croatia for several months. He is the author of The Paper House: The Ending of Yugoslavia, and the translator of Claudio Magris’s Inferences from a Sabre.

ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Ellen
Elias-Bursac

ELLEN ELIAS-BURSAĆ translates fiction and nonfiction from Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian. She has taught in the Harvard University Slavic Department and is a contributing editor to Asymptote. She has translated all of Ivana Bodrožić’s books for Seven Stories along with Robert Perisic’s novel No-Signal Area. She lives in Boston.

ELLEN ELIAS-BURSAĆ translates fiction and nonfiction from Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian. She has taught in the Harvard University Slavic Department and is a contributing editor to Asymptote. She has translated all of Ivana Bodrožić’s books for Seven Stories along with Robert Perisic’s novel No-Signal Area. She lives in Boston.

NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

The author tells an insightful, intelligent and sometimes humorous story that brings alive the ancient myth of female emancipation- authentic Slavic tradition but universally applicable.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Country
Croatia
Original Language
Croatian
Publisher
Canongate US
Translator
Ellen Elias-Bursac, Celia Hawkesworth, Mark Thompson

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