I receive the news of my father’s grave illness with almost complete indifference. I’m finding it mildly annoying, like road construction… He called me just briefly; he doesn’t want to
bother me too much. I’m at work right now. I hang up. I’m furious at my father’s potentially terminal illness. I work at the reception desk of an okay hotel… My job is not demanding—often it’s boring, but it keeps my curiosity alive. I especially like working the evening shifts and figuring out who is sleeping with whom. At night, I get to read a lot. Secretly, I write poetry.
Thus begins Daddy Issues, Dino Pešut’s novel about the generation born in 1990s Croatia. These young adults are sensitive, well-educated, and, for the most part, worse off than their parents, with little perspective aside from emigration. This heartwarming story of familial dysfunction tackles head-on the challenges of friendship, independence, sex and sexuality, mortality, and class. Pešut’s second novel confirms him as a powerful voice of his generation, an author who perfectly captures the moment he lives in, and Vladislav Beronja’s translation brings it to life in English with empathy and humor.
