Berlinski rukopis

Berlin Manuscript continues the autobiographical cycle that Irena Vrkljan began with the novels Silk, Scissors and Marina or About Biography. At the center of the narrative is Berlin – the city in which the author lived for years, but also a symbol of the inner space of memory, solitude and the constant search for her own identity.

The novel is constructed fragmentarily, as a series of notes, memories, encounters and reflections. The boundaries between autobiography, novel, diary and essay are consciously erased, so the narrative is created by connecting personal experiences with literary, artistic and cultural references. Time is not linear, but the past and the present are constantly intertwined, creating a mosaic of memories.

Important places are occupied by the themes of exile, bilingualism, belonging and non-belonging, female identity and the relationship between life and writing. Berlin is not just a backdrop but an active interlocutor of the narrator, a city in which personal history meets European cultural heritage and the experience of modern man.

The poetic, restrained and highly introspective style, rich in associations and intertextual connections, places The Berlin Manuscript among the most important works of Croatian autobiographical and modernist prose of the second half of the 20th century.