Ruta Tanenbaum

Set in the Croatian city of Zagreb, then a part of Yugoslavia, in the period between the world wars Ruta Tannenbaum`s central character is an ingenue inspired by the real-life figure Lea Deutsch, the now-forgotten Shirley Temple of Yugoslavia who was murdered in the Holocaust. Using their shared Jewish heritage as a starting point, Jergovicn constructs a fictional family history populated by historical figures with the precocious Ruta at the center. Stephen Dickey`s translation masterfully captures Jergovicn`s colloquial yet deeply observed style, which animates the tangled and troubled history of persecution and war in Croatia.