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Croatian author, journalist, and columnist Miljenko Jergović received the Fric Award 2021/22 for Best Prose Fiction for his short story collection Three for Kartal (Trojica za Kartal).

The jury praised the book concluding it “expresses the faith in literature as a direct speech about reality, although with a clear awareness that literarization implies a departure from what really happened as well as a certain degree of transformation.” Three for Kartal – subtitled Sarajevo Marlboro Remastered after Jergović’s iconic short story collection from 1994 translated into more than 15 languages – is “also a completely new book, with new stories about other characters and events”, at the center of which is the premise that storytelling and story can “make something great out of ordinary people and events”, jury emphasized.

Fric Literary Award, founded by 24sata and the weekly magazine Express, and named after the nickname of the great Croatian writer Miroslav Krleža, is awarded annually for the Best Prose Fiction written in the Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian, or Montenegrin language.

Among the finalists for this year’s award were also In Late Summer (U kasno ljeto), a novel by Magdalena Blažević, Yesterday (Yesterday), a novel by Kabil Namik, Out Of Nowhere With Love (Niotkud s ljubavlju), a novel by Đorđe Matić, Report On The Generation (Izvještaj o generaciji) a short story collection by Dalibor Šimpraga and Bed Bugs (Stjenice), a novel by Martina Vidaić – selected from a total of 59 titles in the competition.

 Jagna Pogačnik and Miljenko Jergović, foto: (c) Moderna vremena