The Wild Yeast

Fraktura, 2024, 194 pp.

For weeks now, there hasn’t been a breeze in a small Bosnian town of Duvno. The blades of the wind turbines, on which the future of the deserted town now depends, are locked in place, motionless against the sky. But this is not the only thing troubling and disturbing the residents.

After thirty years in Germany, where he was a member of a Balkan robbery gang, Josip Ljubas Džop returned to his home town. But Džop is not a welcomed figure – he carries the burden of having indirectly caused the death of his older brother, who went to war in his place. Now, Džop plans to open an sourdough bakery, while his first love Nada tries to find the courage to confront the man who nearly destroyed her life. The town’s wounds are further reopened with the arrival of Jelena, Nada’s closest cousin and the unacknowledged daughter of Šimun Kolak, a nationalist hero killed by the Yugoslav secret police (UDBA) in the 1980s. Despite bearing the name of a local street and school, Šimun’s legacy has kept Jelena alienated from the family that never accepted her: a Germanized theater artist with little connection to her Balkan roots. Her return stirs the town’s simmering tensions as she defies the locals and questions the line between misfortune and cruelty, much like the wind turbines standing tall but powerless, symbolizing the town’s stagnant fate and the helplessness of its people.

In this novel, Đikić masterfully weaves humor and bitterness, portraying a town where everyone knows each other’s secrets, and where public opinion forms a fragile foundation for community. The past and present collide, revealing the cracks in Duvno’s collective identity, and the weight of history suffocates any chance of new beginnings. The town’s inhabitants are left waiting, trapped in a stifling silence, for the wind to blow and set them into motion. The Wild Yeast is an intimate, nuanced portrait of a town and its people, where personal failures and collective grievances intertwine, and no one escapes the heavy burden of their shared past.

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„The plot is skillfully crafted and pushes for quick reading, but afterwards, one needs to return and reflect on many of the author's insightful observations about small town mentality. We already know that Đikić is a skillful storyteller, captivating with ease and subtlety, as if making a pact with the attentive and empathetic reader, so that everyone feels enriched. Just like cultivating one's own yeast and carefully mixing and resting the sourdough, so the bread is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside – just like a good novel. You want to eat it and read Đikić again. Focused.“

Jadranka Pintarić, Jutarnji list

Meet The Author

Ivica Đikić

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