Why is the London Book Fair important for literature from S E Europe?

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As you have hopefully already heard, Croatia is having a national stand at the London Book Fair this year, for the first time ever. In fact, it is the first time that any republic of the former Yugoslavia has taken a stand.

So why have they decided to take this step? Well, it is part of a series of events organised to highlight the country’s culture and achievement by the Welcome Croatia Festival, in the lead-up to Croatia’s entry to the European Union this summer. And as luck would have it (or some might call it ‘fate’), two Croatian writers are up for major UK literary awards: the north-American resident Josip Novakovich has been nominated for the Man Booker International Prize for lifetime achievement and Daša Drndić’s book – Trieste – has been long-listed for the prestigious Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. These two facts in themselves just go to…

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