Ivana Bodrožičová

Román Hotel Zagorje se odehrává na začátku devadesátých let 20. století, kdy v bývalé Jugoslávii zuří válka. Vyprávění začíná okamžikem, kdy devítiletá hrdinka a její bratr odjíždějí s maminkou z Vukovaru, kam poté vtrhnou Srbové a povraždí velkou část obyvatel. Neúplná rodina pak přežívá v Záhřebu v nejrůznějších ubytovnách a v bytech příbuzných a čeká na zprávy od otce, který zůstal ve Vukovaru. Dospívající dívka se mezitím snaží do té malé škvíry, kterou jí život ve válce nechává, vtěsnat všechny nové poznatky o svém těle, zamilovanosti a bezmoci.

Winner of the Prix Ulysse for best debut novel in France Winner in Croatia and the Balkan region of the Kočicevo Pero Award, the Josip and Ivan Kozarac Award, and the Kiklop Award for the best work of fiction When the Croatian War of Independence breaks out in her hometown of Vukovar in the summer of 1991 she is nine years old, nestled within the embrace of family with her father, mother, and older brother. She is sent to a seaside vacation to be far from the hostilities. Meanwhile, her father has disappeared while fighting with the Croatian forces. By the time she returns at summer's end everything has changed. Against the backdrop of genocide (the Vukovar hospital massacre) and the devastation of middle-class society within the Yugoslav Federation, our young narrator, now with her mother and brother refugees among a sea of refugees, spends the next six years experiencing her own self-discovery and transformation amid unfamiliar surroundings as a displaced person. As she grows from a nine-year old into a sparkling and wonderfully complicated fifteen-year-old, it is as a stranger in her own land. Applauded as the finest work of fiction to appear about the Yugoslav Wars, Ivana Bodrožic's The Hotel Tito is at its heart a story of a young girl's coming of age, a reminder that even during times of war--especially during such times--the future rests with those who are the innocent victims and peaceful survivors.