Croatia in 30 stories

by Božo Skoko, Zvonimir Frka Petešić

This book will offer you a unique insight into Croatia, the character traits of its people and their way of life. You will learn many anecdotes about Croatia’s islands, its exuberant nature or sporting exploits, traditions and innovations. You will discover the history and the present of this booming country on the Mediterranean shores of Central Europe. You may be surprised to learn that you wear an accessory from Croatia… You will learn why Croatian cafés are so busy; why the Swedes kept their children in line with scary stories about the Croats; why the Croats are the world record holders in organ donation; how they were the first in Europe to benefit from public electric lighting; why Croatia was one of the first countries of the Catholic heritage to recognize Islam as traditional religion.

136 pages

Published January 1, 2023

Reviews

[Hakan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bazı keyifli bölümleri olsa, Hırvatistan ve Hırvatlar hakkında bazı eğlenceli bilgiler içerse, harika bir baskıya, hoş ilüstürasyonlara sahip olsa da, bu ülkeyi abartılı bir şekilde öven, neredeyse dünyadaki tüm güzellikleri, yenilikleri Hırvatlara maleden, yakın tarihe sübjektif bir şekilde değinen bir tanıtım/propaganda kitabı temelde. Bu arada farklı temalarda Osmanlılara yapılan atıflarda Hırvatların Hristiyan Avrupa topraklarında Osmanlıların ilerlemesini durduran bir rol oynadıklarının, yine abartılı bir şekilde sürekli vurgulanması da bizler için ayrıca dikkat çekici.

[Kostiantyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book aims to make you curious about Croatia – and a little proud, if you happen to be Croatian – thirty short stories covering people, places, quirks, and contributions most readers probably never knew about. The authors pull it off well. It worked even on me, a frequent guest to Zagreb, who learned just how far Zagreb actually is from everything Croatia has to show.

Not every story landed for me – a matter of taste more than quality, and the good news is there’s enough range that almost anyone will find a few favorites. Mine: the necktie story, finally explaining why Zagreb has more tie shops per square meter than anywhere I’ve seen, and the Dalmatian dog story – the name alone suggests the link, and I’d even owned a wine called “Dalmatian Dog,” region and dog both right there on the label, yet it took the book to actually connect the two.

What genuinely surprised me: very little focus on Croatian wines. One story touches it, and even that one is mostly about a Croatian winemaker from California winning a prize, not about wine from Croatia itself. For a country with the variety and quality of wines they have, that felt like a real gap.

[Craig Strang · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a fun, not so humble brag about Croatia, home of the best, smartest, most creative, ingenious, accepting, hospitable, courageous, fierce, etc., etc., people in the universe. Olive oil, electricity, architecture, wine, neckties, coffee, sailors, fishing technologies m, torpedoes, they all were invented in Croatia or by Croatians. everything, really, comes from Croatia.

[Arijan Svilić · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun book filled with interesting, sometimes not well known facts about Croatia.

However, while reading, I found myself fact-checking every chapter because the book is filled with descriptions of situations which are implausible (eg. the death of Gustavus at the battle of Lutzen) or events that are straight up factually wrong.

All in all, a fun read, but take everything with a grain of salt.

[Marcela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Osim nekoliko zanimljivih, ne toliko općepoznatih činjenica o Hrvatima i Hrvatskoj, cijela knjiga je pretjerano hvalisanje u svim aspektima i sferama života pa se čini da bez Hrvata ljudi možda još ni kotač ne bi izumili. No, i hvalisanje je jedna od odlika našeg naroda pa se može reći da je cijela knjiga prilično "meta" 🤭

[Josué Ruiz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and easy-reading book if you want to know more about this wonderful country. I was lucky enough to live there for almost a year and even luckier to have found amazing people with whom to build a beautiful relationship that still lasts. And if something it’s true in this book is how well it describes the personality and human quality of the Croats. I encourage you to read it and fall in love with Croatia as I am, I’m sure you will feel the urge to visit it soon!

[Bettina Petko · Rating 3 out of 5]

The illustrations in the book are super nice, that is why I bought it. I feel like I learned nothing about Croatia. The writer clearly wrote it with a lot if pride, but the book feels really empty.

[Elijah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alright I gotta bone to pick w this. The best part about this book were the pictures and maybe the chapter about dogs.

It makes me a bit sad because I really want to learn more about this country, and we have this. Like I knew I was doomed for failure when I saw “works as president of prime ministers office” in the author description. And I guess that’s what you get, like it’s kinda on me for pursuing this in spite of my rage. As my actual Croatian uncle said “it’s probably all just propaganda.” Croatia is still young—a 30 year old country. To generalize the behavior of an entire country is incredibly edgy, especially without any sources besides “studied poli sci at U of Zagreb.” I mean the tiny somehow present soul of a journalist inside me died just a little reading this. Each region of Croatia has its own spirit and way of life and it’s just a missed attempt at trying to explain that.

Id have given it one star but again, the chapter in dogs kinda saved it and it earns 2. Also I guess I kinda learned a bit about all the wars and whatever but it’s just so doughy and underbaked that I don’t even know what to believe. Like reading this is almost a test of mental strength to either succumb to the propaganda or just take the red pill and not finish book. So here’s to mental strength, and to adopting more Dalmatians. I’d like several shots of Rakija now to forget most of what I just went through.

[Sladana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would recommend this book as an excellent source to find out about places to see in Croatia, food and wine to try, to find out more about famous Croatians, and culture in general.

However, I would strongly advise NOT to pay much attention to the parts of the book talking about politics (especially the most recent events from the 90s) as that part of the book is apparently written by Zvonimir Frka-Petešić, one of the closest guys of Andrej Plenković (a current Croatian Prime minister known to be leaning towards the populistic views and actions). Hence, the political sections from this book are one-sided, propagandistic, much information are omitted/or incomplete, and often, unfortunately, completely incorrect (this is not my opinion but really the fact).

[Viki Denver]

Baš volim pročitati ovakve rasprave jer se iz komentara često može saznati više nego iz klasičnih recenzija. Svatko ima drugačije iskustvo i upravo to mi pomaže kad nešto biram. Ja sam nakon dosta uspoređivanja završio na CrazyTower Hrvatska https://crazytower-hr.com/ i pokazala mi se kao sasvim dobar izbor za ono što tražim. Korištenje je jednostavno, sve je pregledno i nisam nailazio na nepotrebne komplikacije, što mi je osobno jako važno. Ne kažem da će svima odgovarati isto, ali meni je uvijek korisnije čuti mišljenje ljudi koji su nešto stvarno isprobali nego slijepo pratiti razne top liste. Zato dijelim svoje iskustvo, možda nekome bude od koristi.

[Muk Kzm · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would say 2.5

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tem a sua piada e é um souvenir engraçado; incrivelmente promotor da Croácia

[Ananya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this in my Airbnb so I read it! Loved the illustrations