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The Last Hand (2021) by Renato Baretić follows Zvonko Fild, an acclaimed writer in an existential and writing crisis. Written in a playful yet profound style, The Last Hand offers a humorous and layered story about creation and coming to terms with onesel
After his divorce, Zvonko lives in a rented apartment, facing financial problems and estrangement from his teenage daughter. His life becomes even more complicated when characters from his unfinished stories begin to haunt him, seeking to "free" them by completing their destinies. Zvonko loses the ability to distinguish reality from fiction, and his characters, such as Stjepan Gaćina from the collection Sedmo proklestvo, appear in his moments of pleasure, turning them into nightmares. In order to force him to write, the characters spread through the dreams of his loved ones, like a virus, pushing Zvonko to the brink of madness and forcing him to face his own responsibility.
The novel explores themes of literary ethics, moral choices, and the boundaries between reality and fiction. Baretić masterfully combines elements of the crime, psychological, and socially critical novel, with witty dialogues and language games, using a mixture of dialects. Through Zvonko's struggle with the demons of the past and literary creativity, the novel questions the role of the writer and the power of words.
One copy is available
