Find the Best Books set in Croatia – What novels to read for your next holiday to Croatia — or to better understand the country beyond its beaches and old towns? This selection brings together books that capture Croatia’s landscapes, cities, and history, offering stories that deepen your journey, whether travelled in person or on the page.

Books set in Zagreb

Angel of Disappearance by Slobodan Šnajder

• Setting: Zagreb
• Original title: Anđeo nestajanja
• Publication: 2023
• 403 pages
• This novel is not yet available in English translation (not to be confused with Maja Haderlap’s Angel of Oblivion).

Our Man in Iraq by Robert Perišić

Our Man in Iraq is a darkly comic anti-war novel set mainly in Zagreb in the early 2000s. Croatian author Robert Perišić exposes the fragility of truth, the ethics of journalism, and the uneasy distance between conflict and those who report on it.

• Setting: Zagreb
• Original title: Naš čovjek na terenu
• Publication: 2007
• 208 pages

Read the full book page: Our Man in Iraq

Fording the Stream of Consciousness by Dubravka Ugresic

• Setting: Zagreb
• Original title: Forsiranje romana reke
• Publication: 1988
• 225 pages

Cyclops by Ranko Marinković

Cyclops is set in Zagreb in early 1941, as war approaches Yugoslavia and a young theatre critic drifts through the city, paralysed by fear of conscription and the collapse of European civilisation. Ranko Marinković’s classic Croatian novel captures the mood of a city on the brink while weaving together philosophy and mythology into a distinctive anti-war vision.

• Setting: Zagreb
• Original title: Kiklop
• Publication: 1965
• 576 pages
• Notable: Cyclops was voted the best Croatian novel of all time by the newspaper Jutarnji list (2010). The Croatian Kiklop Literature Award was named after this novel.

Read the full book page: Cyclops

On the Edge of Reason by Miroslav Krleža

On the Edge of Reason is set in Zagreb and follows a respected lawyer whose casual criticism at a dinner party triggers social ruin and imprisonment. In this Croatian masterpiece, Miroslav Krleža delivers a powerful satire of conformity and hypocrisy, and a fierce defence of integrity and free expression.

• Setting: Zagreb
• Original title: Na rubu pameti
• Publication: 1938
• 192 pages
• Notable: Miroslav Krleža is a towering figure in Croatian literature (he received the Yugoslav NIN Award and the international Herder Prize).

Read the full book page: On the Edge of Reason

The Goldsmith’s Treasure by August Šenoa

• Setting: Zagreb
• Original title: Zlatarovo zlato
• Publication: 1871
• 388 pages
• Notable: This novel is widely considered as the first Croatian historical novel.

Books set at Croatia’s Adriatic Coast (Dalmatia, Istria, Central Croatia)

Chasing Homer by László Krasznahorkai

Chasing Homer follows a paranoid fugitive drifting along the Croatian coast to the island of Mljet, where myth and reality blur amid echoes of Homer’s Odyssey. Darkly comic and deeply unsettling, the novella by László Krasznahorkai is a meditation on flight, madness, and the impossibility of escape.

• Setting: Mljet (Dalmatia, Adriatic coast)
• Original title: Mindig Homérosznak
• Publication: 2019
• 96 pages
• Notable: László Krasznahorkai was awarded the Man Booker International Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Read the full book page: Chasing Homer

Son of the Century by Antonio Scurati

• Setting: This Italian novel about the rise to power of Benito Mussolini is mainly set in Italy. An important part takes place in Rijeka (then known as Fiume), Croatia, during the occupation of the city by the Italian poet and nationalist Gabriele D’Annunzio (1919–1920).
• Original title: M. Il figlio del secolo
• Publication: 2018
• 784 pages
• Notable: Winner of the Premio Strega.

Read the full book page: M. Son of the Century

The Pelican: A Comedy by Martin Michael Driessen

The Pelican is set in a small Croatian coastal town in the 1980s, where a postman’s habit of opening letters for gossip and leverage sparks a spiralling blackmail game with the local cable-car driver. Against the backdrop of late-1980s Yugoslavia, Martin Michael Driessen delivers a tragicomic story of friendship and betrayal.

• Setting: an unnamed Croatian town on the Adriatic coast
• Original title: De Pelikaan
• Publication: 2017
• 239 pages

Read the full book page: The Pelican: A Comedy

The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna

The Hired Man is set in a Croatian village, where an English woman renovating an old farm with a local handyman gradually uncovers what the community endured during the wars of the 1990s. With quiet tension and emotional clarity, Aminatta Forna explores how conflict lingers in daily life long after the fighting ends.

• Setting: Gost, a fictitious Croatian village
• Publication: 2013
• 304 pages

Read the full book page: The Hired Man

Belladonna by Daša Drndić

Belladonna is set in a small town on the Adriatic coast, where a retired man facing cancer reflects on illness, memory, and the violent legacies of 20th-century Yugoslav history. Croatian author Daša Drndić weaves personal decline with Nazism, Communism, and the wars of the 1990s into a powerful meditation on forgetting and survival.

• Setting: an unnamed town on the Croatian coast, likely based on Rijeka, where Drndić lived and worked for many years.
• Original title: Belladonna
• Publication: 2012
• 400 pages
• Notable: Winner of the Croatian Kiklop Award and the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation.

Read the full book page: Belladonna

Farewell Cowboy by Olja Savičević

Farewell Cowboy is set in Split on Croatia’s Adriatic coast, where a young woman returns home after years away and begins to probe the unresolved death of her brother. With irony and dark humour, Olja Savičević captures the disillusionment of post-war youth, blending social critique with a playful take on the Western genre.

• Setting: Split
• Original title: Adio kauboju
• Publication: 2010
• 180 pages

Read the full book page: Farewell Cowboy

The Walnut Mansion by Miljenko Jergović

The Walnut Mansion is a sweeping family saga set largely in Dubrovnik, tracing the life of Regina and her relatives, from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the aftermath of the Yugoslav wars. Through intimate lives and shifting regimes, Miljenko Jergović offers a richly textured portrait of a century of Balkan history.

• Setting: Dubrovnik; Sarajevo
• Original title: Dvori od oraha
• Publication: 2003
• 456 pages
• Notable: winner of the Kočić’s Pen Award.

Read the full book page: The Walnut Mansion

The Death of the Little Match Girl by Zoran Ferić

• Setting: Rab
• Original title: Smrt djevojčice sa žigicama
• Publication: 2002
• 193 pages

Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh by Slobodan Novak

Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh is set on the Croatian island of Rab, where a couple caring for a frail aristocratic woman finds their own lives suspended in uneasy isolation. This classic Croatian novel by Slobodan Novak is a meditation on ageing, resentment, and the slow passage of life.

• Setting: Adriatic island of Rab (Kvarner islands)
• Original title: Mirisi, zlato i tamjan
• Publication: 1968
• 250 pages
• Notable: Winner of the NIN Award for best Yugoslav novel of the year.

Read the full book page: Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh

A Brief Excursion by Antun Šoljan

• Setting: Istria (Pazin, Gradina)
• Original title: Kratki izlet
• Publication: 1965
• 252 pages

Illyrian Spring by Ann Bridge

• Setting: The Dalmatian coast (Split, Dubrovnik, etc.)
• Original title: Illyrian Spring
• Publication: 1935
• 336 pages

Jürg Reinhart: A Fateful Summer Journey by Max Frisch

• Setting: Dubrovnik (Ragusa)
• Original title: Jürg Reinhart. Eine sommerliche Schicksalsfahrt
• Publication: 1934
• 242 pages

Veli Jože by Vladimir Nazor

• Setting: Motovun (Istria)
• Original title: Veli Jože
• Publication: 1908
• 128 pages.

A Tale of Two Worlds by Vjenceslav Novak

• Setting: Mainly Senj (at the Adriatic coast)
• Original title: Dva svijeta
• Publication: 1901
• 432 pages.

Books set in Northern Croatia

Drink in the Summer: A Memoir of Croatia by Tony Fabijančić

• Setting: Srebrnjak (Sveta Nedelja; Zagreb County) and the Croatian islands (Brač, Rab, Pag, Cres, Vis, Hvar)
• Publication: 2023
• Original title: Drink in the Summer: A Memoir of Croatia
• 208 pages

The Hotel Tito by Ivana Bodrožić

The Hotel Tito is set between wartime Vukovar and a refugee shelter in Kumrovec, where a nine-year-old girl grapples with loss and displacement during the Croatian War of Independence. Drawing on her own childhood experiences, Ivana Bodrožić offers a moving account of childhood shaped by exile and survival in the 1990s Yugoslav wars.

• Setting: Vukovar, Kumrovec, and Zagreb
• Original title: Hotel Zagorje
• Publication: 2010
• 176 pages
• Notable: Winner of the Croatian Kiklop Award for Best Work of Fiction.

Read the full book page: The Hotel Tito

Books set in Slavonia (Northeastern Croatia)

The Brass Age by Slobodan Šnajder

The Brass Age is an epic family saga set largely in Croatia after the Second World War, tracing the love between a man marked by forced service in the SS and a former Partisan fighter. Drawing on personal history, Slobodan Šnajder weaves a powerful meditation on guilt, memory, and the long shadows cast by 20th-century European history.

• Setting: Croatia (Nuštar in Slavonia) and Poland.
• Original title: Doba mjedi
• Publication: 2015
• 599 pages
• Notable: Winner of the Meša Selimović Award.

Read the full book page: The Brass Age

April Fool’s Day by Josip Novaković

• Setting: Various locations in Yugoslavia: Nizograd (a fictional town in Slavonia Northeastern Croatia); Novi Sad (Serbia); an Adriatic prison island (likely Goli Otok); Zagreb; etc.
• Original title: April Fool’s Day
• Publication: 2004
• 256 pages

Made in Yugoslavia by Vladimir Jokanovic

• Setting: Osijek (Slavonia)
• Original title: Made in Yugoslavia
• Publication: 1995
• 320 pages

Forgotten Son by Miro Gavran

• Setting: Mainly a fictional village in Slavonia (Omorina); Zagreb
• Original title: Zaboravljeni sin
• Publication: 1989
• 111 pages

The Return of Philip Latinowicz by Miroslav Krleža

• Setting: Kaptol, a fictional town in Eastern Croatia (Slavonia)
• Original title: Povratak Filipa Latinovicza
• Publication: 1932
• 232 pages

Croatian Tales of Long Ago by Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić

• Setting: Mythical, fairy-tale landscapes inspired by Croatian and wider Slavic folklore
• Original title: Priče iz davnine
• Publication: 1916
• 106 pages

Complete List of Books Set in Croatia

Croatian literature offers a rich literary map: from Adriatic islands to mountain villages and Zagreb cafés, wartime refugee shelters, and the long shadows of empire, nationalism and ideology. Although relatively little Croatian fiction is available in English, the works that are translated provide deep insight into the country’s history, geography, and cultural tensions. Below is a complete list of books set in Croatia as featured on this blog. 

• Belladonna by Daša Drndić
• Chasing Homer by László Krasznahorkai
• Cyclops by Ranko Marinković
• Farewell Cowboy by Olja Savičević
• Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh by Slobodan Novak
• On the Edge of Reason by Miroslav Krleža
• Our Man in Iraq by Robert Perišić
• The Brass Age by Slobodan Šnajder
• The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna
• The Hotel Tito by Ivana Bodrožić
• The Pelican: A Comedy by Martin Michael Driessen
• The Walnut Mansion by Miljenko Jergović

Croatian Literature in the 19th Century

For much of the 19th century, Croatia formed part of the Habsburg Empire. Croatian writers of this period were deeply engaged in questions of language, identity, and cultural autonomy. A key aim of the pan-Slavic Illyrian Movement was the standardisation of a shared South-Slavic literary language. One of its central figures was Ljudevit Gaj, who promoted a Latin alphabet adapted for the Serbo-Croation language.

Important poets of the era include Ivan Mažuranić, author of the epic poem The Death of Smail-aga Čengić, Petar Preradović, and Stanko Vraz. In drama, Dimitrija Demeter (Teuta) and Antun Nemčić (Yeast Bread) stand out.

The key figure in Croatian prose of the period is August Šenoa, often described as the “father of the Croatian novel”. His novel The Goldsmith’s Treasure (1871), set in 16th-century Zagreb, is widely considered the first Croatian historical novel.

Realism and naturalism followed later in the century. Eugen Kumičić and Ante Kovačić wrote socially engaged novels about peasants, workers, and fishermen, while Ksaver Šandor Gjalski focused on the declining Croatian aristocracy. Few of these works are available in English. At the turn of the century, Vjenceslav Novak published two important realist novels: The Last Stipančićs (1899) and A Tale of Two Worlds (1901), largely set in the Adriatic town of Senj.

Croatian Literature in 20th-Century Yugoslavia

In the early 20th century, Vladimir Nazor published his historical novel Veli Jože (1908), set in Istria under Venetian rule. A very different classic is the fairytale collection Croatian Tales of Long Ago (1916) by Ivana Brlić‑Mažuranić, a foundational work of Croatian children’s literature inspired by Slavic mythology.

After the First World War, Croatia became part of Yugoslavia. The towering literary figure of the interwar period is Miroslav Krleža. His novels The Return of Philip Latinowicz (1932) and On the Edge of Reason (1938) are both closely associated with Zagreb, while his short-story collection The Croatian God Mars (1922) and his play The Glembays (1929) remain central to Croatian literary culture.

Another major Yugoslav-era author is Ivo Andrić, a Yugoslav writer from Bosnia – sometimes described as a Bosnian Croat – who is best known for his historical novels set in Bosnia under Ottoman rule, most notably The Bridge on the Drina (1945). He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961.

Post-war modernism brought a new generation. Ranko Marinković published Cyclops (1965), set in Zagreb on the eve of the Second World War and widely regarded as one of the greatest Croatian novels. Slobodan Novak followed with Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh (1968), a slow, symbolic novel set on the island of Rab. Antun Šoljan contributed the allegorical travel-novel A Brief Excursion (1965), set in Istria.

In the final decades of Yugoslavia, autobiographical and experimental writing gained prominence. Irena Vrkljan published The Silk, the Shears (1984) and Marina (1986), moving between Belgrade, Zagreb, and Berlin. Dubravka Ugrešić explored literary identity in Fording the Stream of Consciousness (1988), a novel about writers gathering at a conference in Zagreb during the Yugoslav period, while Miro Gavran published Forgotten Son (1989), about a young man with an intellectual disability, largely set in Slavonia.

Croatian Independence and Contemporary Literature

The Yugoslav wars of the 1990s form the background to many contemporary Croatian novels. Vladimir Jokanović set Made in Yugoslavia (1995) in Slavonia (northeastern Croatia), while Slavenka Drakulić addressed wartime trauma in S. A Novel About the Balkans (1999), mainly set in Bosnia. Zoran Ferić’s The Death of the Little Match Girl (2002) uses a murder on the island of Rab to explore post-war moral decay.

The refugee experience is central to Ivana Bodrožić’s The Hotel Tito (2010), while war memory and its aftermath also shape The Hired Man (2013) by Aminatta Forna, set in a fictional Croatian village.

Other notable contemporary novels include The Walnut Mansion (2003) by Miljenko Jergović, spanning Dubrovnik and Sarajevo across the 20th century; April Fool’s Day (2004) by Josip Novaković; Our Man in Iraq (2007) by Robert Perišić, largely set in Zagreb; Farewell Cowboy (2010) by Olja Savičević, set in Split; Belladonna (2012) by Daša Drndić; and The Brass Age (2015) by Slobodan Šnajder, a major family saga set partly in Slavonia.

Croatia in International Literature

Croatia has also inspired international writers. László Krasznahorkai (winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2025) set his novella Chasing Homer (2019) on the Croatian island of Mljet. Martin Michael Driessen’s The Pelican: A Comedy (2017) unfolds in a small Adriatic town. Earlier examples include Illyrian Spring (1935) by Ann Bridge and Jürg Reinhart: A Fateful Summer Journey (1934) by Max Frisch.

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