Jedna ptica pjeva u pustnji

From the desert of oblivion and carelessness for a collection of stories that is special in many respects, not only the song and melody of the story but also the bird, its image and its habitat have returned to us.

Marija Barbarić-Fanuko is first and foremost a poet, and only then a storyteller. Therefore, at the beginning of the collection, before all eighteen of her stories, there is a poem as a kind of prolegomena. It informs us that it is about stories about a Flower and a Star, about their longing to meet, about their nearness and distance, about day and night, about a spark and a Bird in flight... The capital letters of the common nouns flower, star and bird indicate that it is not about characters but about concepts, metaphors and symbols. (...)

Marija Barbarić-Fanuko's stories resemble cut precious stones, with recognizable colors and cut shapes, a constant shine that will reflect in the spirit of every reader: either the one who dreams and imagines while reading, or the one who draws conclusions and realizes while reading. All readers will come to the right measure - to the measure of their age, their experience and their openness. It is about deeply human, archetypal stories and symbols, desires and needs; above all, ways to recognize and recognize it. The world in these eighteen stories is simple, clean and transparent. In short: clear, but not ideal. Fairytale, but not in the usual way. Stories are like wells on a long journey. Some stories are therefore a compass, some are binoculars, and some are signposts on a map.