Baba Yaga Laid an Egg

Blisteringly postmodern in its execution but at its heart is a human warmth and even a silliness that infuses it with the sweet magic of storytelling. The Times

A book packed with intellectual surprises and emotional revelations. Metro

Baba Yaga is a witch-like character who flies around on a giant mortar, kidnapping (and presumably eating) small children. She lives in a house on chicken feet. She is generally a terrifying figure, portrayed not only in literature but also film, animation and music throughout Russian culture.

Dubravka Ugrešić takes the story of Baba Yaga and weaves it into something completely fresh. The result is an extraordinary meditation on femininity, ageing, identity, secrets, storytelling and love.

Dubravka UgrešićDubravka Ugrešić was born in 1949 in Croatia. She worked for twenty years at the Institute for Theory of Literature at Zagreb University, successfully pursuing parallel careers as a writer and a literary scholar.

She started writing professionally with screenplays for children’s television programs, as an undergraduate. In 1971 she published her first book for children, which was awarded a prestigious Croatian literary prize for children’s literature.

In 1991, when the war broke out in the former Yugoslavia, Ugrešić took a firm anti-nationalistic stand and consequently an anti-war stand. She started to write critically about nationalism (both Croatian and Serbian), the stupidity and criminality of war, and soon became a target of the nationalistically charged media. She was proclaimed a ‘traitor’, a ‘public enemy’ and a ‘witch’, ostracised and exposed to harsh and persistent media harassment. She left Croatia in 1993.

Dubravka Ugrešić has continued writing since she began living abroad. She has published both novels and books of essays. Ugrešić’s essays have appeared in American (Context, The Hedgehog Review) and European newspapers and magazines (Vrij Nederland, Die Zeit, Die Welt Woche and many others). She teaches occasionally at American and European universities. Her books have been translated into more then twenty languages and she has received several major European literary awards. She is now based in Amsterdam and works as a freelance writer.

  1. Maud Newton: Blog (April 28, 2009 at 5:45 pm) :

    [...] Ugresic reimagines the witch of Russian lore who kidnaps small children and lives in a house on chicken feet. [...]

  2. Dream Angus (June 12, 2009 at 9:03 am) :

    [...] Dubravka Ugresic Baba Yaga Laid an Egg [...]

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