Q&A with Jurica Pavičić

  

 

 

Jurica Pavičić is the author of the novel Mother of Sorrows, now available in an English-language translation by Matt Robinson. Pavičić's other books include Red Water. Also a journalist and a screenwriter, he lives in Split, Croatia. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Mother of Sorrows?

 

A: In 2012 a young Mexican tourist was found dead, slaughtered in a recreational park forest in Split, the city where I live.

 

A couple of days later the police published a photo of an AC Milan soccer T-shirt which they believed - and it turned out to be true  - belonged to the murderer.

 

I was watching a photo of a soccer shirt published in a newspaper, and my sudden thought was: what if I recognized the T-shirt, and knew it belonged to my son? That was the beginning.

 

Of course, I didn't want a documentary novel. Instead of a tourist, I opted for a local girl, the daughter of an influential elite, instead of a mother I wrote about two women (a mother and sister). Even the AC Milan shirt became an FC Barcelona jacket.

 

But my initial core - someone seeing an object in the news and recognizing it - is still there as a scene in the novel.

 

Q: How did you create your characters Zvone, Ines, and Katja?

 

A: I started Mother of Sorrows as a novel about the mother. I soon realized that it didn’t work, it would be too dry and one-dimensional.

 

So, I introduced a mother and sister/daughter which are opposites. The mother is working class, not very clever, and religious. The daughter is more broad-minded, modern, a middle-class professional.

 

But the most important division in the novel is ideological. It's the ideological choice between loyalty to a family, blood, and tribe, and loyalty to principles and law.

 

Everywhere - and especially in the Balkans - that divide is a clue. It may be only a relevant ideological divide, far more relevant then classic left and right. It's also a crucial topic of many great crime novels I know, for instance, Dennis Lehane's Mystic River or Small Mercies.  

 

Q: The Publishers Weekly review of the novel says, “Pavičić is far more concerned with the story's emotional stakes, which he renders convincingly enough to move even the hardest hearts.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: Well, I love it. But I hope the reader won't misunderstand it. Mother of Sorrows is still a thriller. I wanted it to be a page-turner. I want people to rush toward the end, wondering what's going to happen next. That old-fashioned genre pleasure has got to be there, merged with psychology and emotional drama.

 

Q: Can you say more about what you hope readers take away from the novel?

 

A: Like I said, I want my books to be thrilling, to give genre pleasure. At the same time, I try to drive my readers into a hostage situation, I want them to identify with characters which would take them somewhere where they might not want to be, to support them while they do things which would otherwise condemn.

 

Also, I want foreign readers to get the idea about my society and culture, which is Mediterranean, a southern society in a tourist-driven, post-industrial, post-Yugoslav war, late capitalism.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I finished a book last week; it will be out in November. The title is Atentator (translated Assassin). It starts with a murder of a murky mid-level politician who is killed by an assassin on an electric bike.

 

I follow several characters: murderer, police inspector in charge, daughter of the politician, and an older lady from the secluded island who realized that a guest in her apartment house could be a murderer.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: There is a lot of food in my novels because I like to cook. I also write short stories which are - at least I think so - quite good. Some of my favorite writers are short story writers: Flannery O'Connor, Raymond Carver, J.D. Salinger, and Borges.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Jurica Pavičić.