The Survival League
by Gordan Nuhanović Nuhanović places a candid camera in the spaces his characters inhabit... After a certain time period, they manage to do something crazy and unexpected, the way only real people can.— Vlatka Vorkapić, theater director In The Survival League, Gordon Nuhanović delves past Croatia’s post-war politics and focuses on the people struggling to heal old wounds and create new lives. With edgy, evocative prose, Nuhanović weaves darkly optimistic tales where nothing ever works out quite right: English lawns grow daisies instead of grass, and a romantic weekend in the mountains turns into a near-death experience.
While war casts a shadow over all the characters, Nuhanović’s use of everyday events and occurrences makes The Survival League ring true in any culture. Caffeinated punks, male pattern baldness, and Jehovah’s Witnesses are all part of the lives the characters observe or reclaim. Through Nuhanović’s natural storytelling voice, we hear the stories of survivors, not only of war, but of life and its spectrum—from the mundane to the insane.
The Survival League’s humanity is universal, but a brief history of Croatia and an author’s note about the origin of each story create a firm cultural context for the English-speaking world. The book is not only an ironic glimpse into the limits of human endurance but also a lesson in modern Croatian culture.
Already a hit in Croatia, The Survival League won the Society of Croatian Writers’ Nightingale Award and the Ivan and Josip Kozarac Award. The Croatian daily newspaper Jutarnji List even voted it one of the top five books published in 2002. With the help of the Croatia’s Ministry of Culture, Ooligan Press proudly introduces this acclaimed storyteller to the United States.
If you would like to know more about this title:
ooligan.survivalleague@pdx.edu
ISBN 10: 1-932010-06-8
ISBN 13: 978-1-932010-06-0
5 ½" x 8 ½", softcover
104 pages
$10.95