Ja nisam Švabo

The plot follows Eugen Udo Schläger, a mechanical engineer, orienteering champion and butterfly enthusiast from Trudinger, Germany. After his mother's death, Udo finds a letter from her in which she reveals to him that his father is not the German Eugen Schläger who raised him, but Tvrtko Batina from the village of Batina in Dalmatian Zagora. Udo sets off for Croatia under the guise of a foreign investor who plans to build windmills – the best way to get a good reception in the small town.

But in Batina (Velika and Gornja Batina) things get complicated: there is not just one Tvrtko Batina there, but several, and no one wants to easily reveal the secret of why his mother Eva, a local teacher, fled to Germany while pregnant in the late 1980s. The novel takes place over just a few days, filled with hilarious situations, dialogues in the Dalmatian-Zagorje dialect and a clash of two mentalities: the orderly, globalized "Skvaba" and the stubborn, resourceful new-age Morlaks who take only what suits them from the modern world.

Kukavica masterfully writes a humorous, sharp and sometimes naughty novel that simultaneously exalts and gently mocks Batina and its inhabitants. Through the story, he examines themes of identity, roots, fatherhood, blood and genetics ("blood is not water"), but also broader social themes - from transitional Croatia to the conflict of tradition and globalization. Women in the novel often initiate the plot and have the main say, despite the apparent male dominance.

Critics often compared the novel to the works of Ivan Raos (The Beggars and the Sons), and readers quickly fell in love with it for its authentic language, wit and recognizable characters. Kukavica, who wrote the novel at the age of fifty “without great ambitions”, managed to create a lively, dynamic and universal text that can be read in one sitting.

I am not a Swabian is a funny, warm and intelligent novel that shows that the search for identity is often a hilarious, painful and liberating adventure. The book was well received, sold out on several occasions and sparked discussions about a possible film or theatre adaptation. The story was continued later in the novel Young Mass.