New to Paperback: Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugresic

The paperback edition of Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugresic, a Croatian author, is officially released today. It is a translation from the author original prose and first appeared in English last year but I haven't highlighted it before having just recently learned of it.

Book description from the publisher:

According to Slavic myth, Baba Yaga is a witch who lives in a house built on chicken legs and kidnaps small children. In Baba Yaga Laid an Egg, internationally acclaimed writer Dubravka Ugresic takes the timeless legend and spins it into a fresh and distinctly modern tale of femininity, aging, identity, and love.

With barbed wisdom and razor-sharp wit, Ugresic weaves together the stories of four women in contemporary Eastern Europe: a writer who grants her dying mother’s final wish by traveling to her hometown in Bulgaria, an elderly woman who wakes up every day hoping to die, a buxom blonde hospital worker who’s given up on love, and a serial widow who harbors a secret talent for writing. Through the women’s fears and desires, and their struggles against invisibility, Ugresic presents a brilliantly postmodern retelling of an ancient myth that is infused with humanity and the joy of storytelling.

About the Author:

Dubravka Ugresic was born in 1949 in Yugoslavia. She has published both novels and books of essays. 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.

The book is receiving overall positive reviews although one of the more accurate labels for it is perhaps esoteric so it might not be for everyone. Still, if you are interested in Baba Yaga, this should be of interest since it offers both fiction and nonfiction centered on the character.