This is the beginning of the interview with Slavenka Drakulic on ‘Berlin Interviews’:
There was a time in her native Croatia when her books were not being published. Neither were her outspoken articles, which instead appeared in the rest of the European press; during the war, but even for many years after its conclusion. Slavenka Drakulic, one of the best known Croatian journalists, essayist and authors, was being punished for her insistent, eloquent criticism of nationalism. She was persecuted, she was the object of a smear campaign and has received too much hate mail for one person. “I am still paying the price”, she tells me when we meet in Berlin, on the occasion of the conference “Narrating war” at the HKW.
The first book by Slavenka Drakulic that I read, many years ago, was “How we survived communism and even laughed”. It caught my attention in an English language bookstore during a trip to Prague and after reading only a few pages, I was gripped. Luckily so because it has been my introduction to the work of one of the most brilliant authors and social commentators active in Europe today.
Read the rest here:
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