Catherine the Great and the Small

Knežević takes us through turbulent times in the Balkan region, from the eighties to the present day, portraying young adult life in the twilight of Tito’s Yugoslavia. Her carefully crafted characters and masterful, dynamic storytelling place this book among the very best 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, in the cities she lives in, and constructing her unique identity as a daughter, granddaughter, friend, mistress, wife and mother.

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Winner of the VBZ Novel of the Year.

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The splendid language of this novel is skilfully and vividly translated, and the narrative is compelling.

Morelle Smith

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Knežević’s relentless chronicling of the ravages of heterosexuality and women’s centering of men invites us to read the novel as a quiet act of queer subversion in a hostile Eastern European climate.

Anna Kasradze

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