The island of Susak was used as the inspiration for the story “Miss Misery na otoku Susku” (Miss Misery on Susak) by: Bekim Sejranović
Susak
The small island of Susak lies near Lošinj. It’s known for shallow sandy bays and a unique yellowish sand. Its particular feature is that it’s car-free, and the locals speak a special Susak variety of the Chakavian (litoral) dialect and extremely brightly coloured traditional clothes. The women of Susak are the only one in Europe with traditional skirts cut above the knee. The entire area of the island is protected cultural heritage.
Since the inhabitants of Susak were mostly employed in viticulture and fishing, the development of those economic activities often depended on the states managing this area. During Yugoslavia, the introduction of the tax on wine, the main product of Susak, initiated mass emigration. During the period from 1945 to 1989, 1,518 people left the island. Nowadays, most emigrants live in Hoboken, New Jersey, US.
According to the latest census of 2011, 151 people live on the island of Susak.
Bekim Sejranović
Bekim Sejranović is a Bosnian-Herzegovian and Croatian author, born in Brčko in 1972. He moved to Rijeka in 1985 and there attended naval school and studied Croatian language and literature. He has been living in Oslo, Norway since 1993, where he obtained a Master’s degree in South Slavic literature at the Faculty of History and Humanities.
He translated works by Ingvar Ambjørnsen and Frode Grytten from Norwegian, and also edited and translated the anthology of Norwegian short story “The Great Barren Landscape”. He is the author of the study “Modernizam u romanu Isušena kaljuža Janka Polića Kamova” (“Modernism in the novel ‘The Dried Up Mire’) by Janko Polić Kamov”), book of short stories “Fasung” and the novels “Nigdje, niotkuda” (“Nowhere, No Place”) and “Ljepši kraj” (“A Prettier End”).
Bekim won the “Meša Selimović” award in 2009 for the novel “Nigdje, niotkuda”, awarded for best novel published in the region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro. As screenwriter, together with the Japanese director Moku Teraoka he created the documentary “Od Tokija do Morave” (“From Tokio To Morava”) in 2011. So far, apart from the above-mentioned works, he has also published the following works: “Sandale” (“Sandals”), “Tvoj sin Huckleberry Finn” (“Your Son Huckleberry Finn”) and “Dnevnik jednog nomada” (“Diary of a Nomad”).
More on the author and his work
The programme is implemented in cooperation with the Municipality of Mali Lošinj and the Museum of Apoxyomenos.
