MIHAELA GAŠPAR
Croatia
Mihaela Gašpar (1973) is a Croatian writer. Her primary occupation was sculpture, but later she devoted herself entirely to literature. She currently works as a marketing director and head of the design department at a private company. She has been dealing with literature since 2010 and she has published several novels and a collection of short stories. In 2011, with her story, she entered the narrowest circle for the award of the Prichigin competition. The manuscript for the novel "Mitohondriska Eva" was named the best prose manuscript at the 7th anonymous competition of "Matica Croatia" in 2012. The collection of short stories "Slatkiš, duhan, britva" (Cookie, tobacco, razor) was shortlisted for the Xaver Shandor Galski award, and the novel "O čajnicima i ženama" (On teapots and women) entered the finals for the Fran Galović award.
NEMIRNICA (DISQUIET)
Translation: Kristina Velevska
Every night, as he buttons his pajamas up and greets himself with his own reflection in the mirror, the protagonist of this novel, Josip Majdak, prepares for his death. Our dying rehearsals happen every night, in which, just like Josip, we go to bed hoping to get up in the morning. When we lay our head on a pillow - whether it is feathered or anatomical, the thing that breathes beside us, that vague presence that remains when the lights and shadows switch off, is our conscience. In the morning we quietly get up and sneak out of bed so as not to awaken our conscience. But the conscience of the watchmaker Josip wakes up at night and stays awake all night long. She will drag to his bed all those he has long forgotten: the dead, the living and those unknown.
It is a circle of circumstances - a trap into which we fall since birth. If the reader judges Josip Majdak, he may judge himself. Good night, conscience!