Miro Gavran is a contemporary Croatian author, born in 1961. His works have been translated into 35 languages, and his books have come out in 150 different editions at home and abroad. His dramas and comedies have had more than 200 theatre first nights around the world and have been seen by more than two million theatre-goers.
He is the only living dramatist in Europe to have a theatre festival devoted solely to his plays outside his/her homeland; the Gavranfest has been held in Slovakia since 2003.
He debuted in 1983 with the drama Creon's Antigone, speaking out forcefully about political manipulation. This was followed three years later by the drama Night of the Gods, the theme being the relationship between the artist and the powers-that-be under a totalitarian system. He then wrote a cycle of plays concentrating on male-female relations, in which his heroes were often great historical persons. He has created a series of complex female characters. His heroines are both strong and emotional. He has written some forty plays to date, including Death of an Actor, All About Women, All About Men, George Washington's Loves, Chekhov Says Good-Bye to Tolstoy, How To Kill The President, Greta Garbo's Secret, Parallel Worlds, Nora in Our Time, My Wife's Husband, Dr Freud's Patient...
There have been first nights of his plays throughout the world, in: Rotterdam, Washington, Moscow, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, Buenos Aires, Waterford, Mumbai, Bratislava, Prague, Ljubljana, Sarajevo, Krakow, Belgrade, Budapest, Athens, Augsburg, Vienna, Sofia.
He has had nine novels published: Forgotten Son, How We Broke Our Legs, Klara, Margita or A Journey into a Former Life, Judith, John the Baptist, Pontius Pilate and The Only Witness to Beauty, Kafka's friend, along with a collection of short stories entitled Small Unusual People.
In his early novels, he describes life in the Croatian provinces, featuring everyday folk, anti-heroes of sorts, who retain a positive stance towards life even when they are confronted with injustice and major difficulties. This is perhaps best seen in his novel, Forgotten Son (1989), in which the central personage is a slightly mentally challenged young man of twenty.
As a forty-year-old, Gavran started to write psychological-existential novels inspired by biblical characters, bringing them nearer to the sensibilities of contemporary readers. These books have been popular with both believers and non-believers, since their messages are universal.
His books have been published in all corners of the globe: in Beijing, Vienna, St Petersburg, Oslo, Istanbul, Paris, Prague, Bratislava, Sofia, Ljubljana...
Gavran has received more than twenty literary awards in Croatia and abroad, including the Central European Time Award, given annually in Budapest to the best Central European author for overall opus, as well as the European Circle Award given to writers for the confirmation of European values in their texts.
With insight and humour, Miro Gavran has written eight books for children and young people: All Sorts of Things in My Head, How Dad Won Mum, Head Over Heels in Love, Happy Days, Farewell Letter, Plays with a Head and a Tail, Try to Forget and The Teacher of My Dreams. These books have also found their way to adult readers.
Gavran earned his degree in Dramaturgy at the Academy of Theatre, Film and Television in Zagreb.
He first worked as a dramaturge and theatre director at the famous ITD Theatre in Zagreb. Since 1993, he has been living and working as a free-lance, professional writer. His theatre and prose texts have been included in numerous anthologies in Croatia and in countries outside its borders, and his work is studied at universities throughout the world.
He has been living in Zagreb, Croatia since he was twenty. He is married to the actress Mladena Gavran, and founded the Gavran Theatre with her in 2002. Their son Jakov is a student of acting.
Knjiga je napisana u ich formi iz perspektive dječaka koji živi u (širem) centru Zagreba na totalno fake jeziku kojim nitko u Zagrebu ne govori. Štoviše, tim jezikom ne govori nitko živ u privatnom životu, osim možda nekog pompoznog priučenog govornika fiktivnog jezika. Niti jedno dijete ne bi tako nešto upotrijebilo u svakodnevnoj komunikaciji. Malo je vjerojatno da bi djeca prosječnog kvocjenta inteligencije rezonirala na način koji je prikazan u romanu tako da su zaplet i rasplet su tako neoriginalni i predvidivi da su u 80tima postajali petparački ljubići koji su se kupovali na trafiki koji su bili bolje napisani. Malo je reći da su likovi su plošni, a roman ispodprosječan. Najiskrenije preporučujem ovaj roman samo stranim učenicima hrvatskog standardnog jezika i eventualno developerima ChatGPT da testiraju modele prevođenja. Sad mi je potpuno jasno zašto je Miro Gavran najprevođeniji hrvatski pisac: zato što njegove romane može prevoditi Google Translate i ChatGPT jer nemaju niti jednu originalnu, životnu rečenicu nad kojom bi se ljudski prevoditelj morao zamisliti.
Ovo je prvi puta da čitam ovu knjigu jer ju tijekom svog školovanja nisam imala za lektiru. Toliko smo uživali u ovoj knjizi čitajući ju (obiteljski). Knjiga govori o dvojici prijatelja - jedan je bez mame, a drugi bez tate. Njihovoj mašti kako spojiti mamu i tatu kako bi bili obitelj stvarno nije bilo granice. Knjiga je pisana jednostavnim način i vrlo je šaljiva. Daje jedan pozitivan dašak svježive u svemu ovome što nas okružuje.