Ana Schnabl is a Slovenian novelist, editor and critic based in the alpine town of Kamnik, Slovenia. Here are her five favourite Balkan books.

Newcomers by Lojze Kovačič, translated by Michael Biggins

Kovačič recounts his family’s expulsion from Switzerland in 1938 and their life in Slovenia (then Yugoslavia) during WWII. Through a child’s eye, he captures the dislocation of migration with haunting clarity.

Tatin sin / Daddy’s Son by Dino Pešut

Pešut’s raw and witty narrative explores a queer son’s complex relationship with his ailing father in contemporary Croatia. Themes of family, shame, and identity intertwine in prose that’s both brutal and beautiful.

Catch the Rabbit by Lana Bastašić

A haunting road trip through friendship, memory and the shadows of post-Yugoslavia, Bastaš

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