Šalković Hrvoje: Ne primamo vilenjake

Hrvoje Šalković: We don't accept elves

Students from the provinces, BBB, humanitarian concerts, Chinese, population censuses, household advice, rebellions, Šalković's new stories are hyperrealistic in the best sense of the word - they are immersed in Croatian everyday life, and although humorous, they do not gloss over reality, but deal with the essence of a social problem.

Urban legends serve us, among other things, to we orient in space and time. In a world that has blurred the lines between the real and the virtual, it no longer matters which experiences are authentic and which come from the deep emptiness of the world. Once upon a time, Rilke exclaimed: "You have to change your life!". But how to do that in a world that is false, kitsch, non-autonomous?

By reading books!

Everyone has some secret or something inexpressible, something marginal, some discomfort, shame. We instinctively want to "spread out" in space and time, realize ourselves and feel free. Along the way, we are enslaved by the monstrous traps of the environment and the epoch, no matter how much we try to cross the given horizon.

The heroes of Hrvoje Šalković's short stories act in the belief that they will radically change their own lives. In this drama, they have to face their own authenticity in conflict with the vulgarity and inexorability of the circumstances. They do not agree to be observers of their own lives, and their (small) rebellion is a crucial and turning point act that may not be spectacular in the society of spectacles, but it is certainly a testimony of the primordial need for the integrity of authentic human existence in the encroaching all-pervading inhuman character of a social system without values.

You survive in urban everyday life only if you live the urban legends of Hrvoje Šalković.

That is why you are not alone. We welcome elves ☺.

Jadranka Pintarić

That Hrvoje Šalković is an unusual man and writer! For him, both life and writing are adventures that he embarks on in fifth gear and without calculating, we would say heartily. Along the way, he encounters numerous obstacles, many things annoy him, sometimes he gets stuck somewhere, someone even criticizes him for something, but he continues to drive as if it is all one big desert that simply needs to be crossed, without unnecessary stops. His new collection of stories starts from topics that you can read in the newspaper, but from them you will mostly find out only how everything ended, and never how it really was. This is where Šalković's story begins. How did the actors feel, what preceded everything and why - the hell - haters in this country have so much space to operate. The dynamics of the stories, quick dialogue changes and a strong social feeling, that's what carries the readers of this book, and that's exactly in that famous fifth gear. There is something unhappy and wild in the air in Šalković's stories, but isn't our everyday life just like that, rough, unfair and so little idyllic that there is simply no place for elves in it.

Jagna Pogačnik

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Hrvoje Šalković was born in Zagreb in 1973, graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences in Zagreb, and post-graduate completed his studies at London University of Westminster. He published six novels and one collection of short stories. He traveled to all seven continents. He won the VBZ literary award for the best unpublished novel (2006). He is a member of the Croatian Society of Writers. When he is not traveling, he lives and works in Zagreb.

So far, he has published the collection of stories 'com.opnci.com.obojci' (Buvina, 2002), and the novels 'Pala karta' (Nova stvarnost, 2003), 'Pravi se da ovo nisi vidio' (VBZ, 2006), 'Rabbit on the moon' (VBZ, 2007), 'Oko cucka pa na mala vrata' (Profil, 2008) and 'Combinacija d.o.o.' (VBZ, 2009), 'Zero Meridian' (Naklada Ljevak 2011).