A Room for Girls

Fraktura, 2024, 144 pp.

In her gripping new novel, Korana Svilar masterfully weaves a psychological thriller that unravels through a chorus of distinct voices, each echoing the inner conflicts of two women bound by a shared, complex fate. 

At the heart of the story is Eva Lanč, a 19-year-old whose life takes an unforeseen turn after an unexpected pregnancy. Through Eva’s experiences, the novel captures the fears, hopes, and confusion felt by Generation Z and brings to life the anxieties, desires, and disconnections of a generation grappling with a world that feels both thrillingly free and suffocatingly uncertain. Her struggles are contrasted with those of Nikolina Motika, Eva’s middle-aged, newly-divorced homeroom teacher, whose unfulfilled longing for motherhood soon becomes an all-consuming obsession. As their lives intertwine in ways neither of them could have predicted, Svilar builds a tense and claustrophobic atmosphere, drawing readers into the unsettling reality of these two unlikely roommates – a high school student and a teacher – living together under the weight of an impending, perhaps unwelcomed,
birth. But as Nikolina’s well-meaning gestures of help become increasingly invasive, the question arises: how far can kindness stretch before it morphs into something darker?

A Room for Girls explores the slippery slope between good intentions and manipulation. Through this haunting narrative, Svilar asks readers to question the very nature of morality in a world where the lines between right and wrong, good and evil, are blurred beyond recognition. With every turn of the page, you’re left with a lingering, uneasy tension – much like standing in a pristine room with many beautiful, yet tightly shut windows… and no doors.