Dark Mother Earth
ABOUT
THE BOOK
An amnesiac writer’s life of lies and false memories reaches a breaking point in this stunning English-language debut from an award-winning Croatian author. As a novelist, Matija makes things up for a living. Not yet thirty, he’s written two well-received books. It’s his third that is as big a failure as his private life. Unable to confine his fabrications to fiction, he’s been abandoned by his girlfriend over his lies. But all Matija has is invention. Especially when it comes to his childhood and the death of his father. Whatever happened to Matija as a young boy, he can’t remember. He feels frightened, angry, and responsible…Now, after years of burying and reinventing his past, Matija must confront it. Longing for connection, he might even win back the love of his life. But discovering the profound fears he has suppressed has its risks. Finally seeing the real world he emerged from could upend it all over again.
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
Novak’s story is a dark and frightening one, taking us to mystical levels of reality and memory. We follow the story of a young, successful writer Matija, who is dealing with writer’s block. In search of inspiration, he turns to his childhood, which leads to a personal and emotional struggle with repressed, traumatic events. This exceptional story takes us on a difficult and sometimes disturbing journey one man must go on to confront buried sadness, fears, strange deaths and local myths and legends, so he can finally be free from his perplexed past.