Catherine’s trajectory in life is accompanied by failures in love, family traumas and an incredible romance with handsome Siniša. The novel takes us through turbulent times in the Balkan region, from the eighties to the present day, portraying growing up in the twilight of communism, and giving intimate insights into all that happened to the region after that. Carefully crafted characters and masterful, dynamic storytelling place “Catherine the Great and the Small” in the company of the very best of novels, which speak about the reality of their geographic setting and are remembered for their convincing, strong, maladjusted characters.
Catherine is certainly one of them: a powerful female voice seeking her place within her family, among friends and in the cities she lives in, while constructing her unique identity as a daughter, granddaughter, friend, mistress, wife and mother.
Writer
Olja Knežević
Olja Knežević was born in Podgorica, Montenegro, and presently resides in Zagreb, Croatia. She has worked as an interpreter, a journalist and an English news editor aboard the Radio Ship, an independent radio station located in the international waters of the Adriatic Sea during the 1990s and the war in ex-Yugoslavia;..
Translator
Paula Gordon
Paula Gordon’s translations of fiction, non-fiction and poetry by Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian authors have been published in print and online, and she has translated dialog for fiction and documentary films..
Translator
Ellen Elias-Bursać
Ellen Elias-Bursać translates fiction and non-fiction from Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian. Her translation of David Albahari’s novel Götz and Meyer was given the 2006 ALTA National Translation Award. She is president of the American Literary Translators Association.