Kormoran

Kormoran by Nikola Pulić is a children's and young adult novel set in a coastal and island area, in which the story of growing up unfolds against the backdrop of wartime. At the center of the plot are a boy Pavo and his grandfather Jere, a retired diver, and an important symbolic and narrative role is played by the cormorant, a bird that marks their lives and connects man with the sea, nature and a sense of belonging to his homeland.

The novel combines elements of adventure and reality. On the one hand, there are the sea, the coast, children's curiosity and closeness to nature, and on the other, the experience of insecurity, loss and maturation in circumstances that go beyond the children's world. Pulić does not build the story only on events, but also on the atmosphere of the space: the sea is not just a backdrop, but a living element of the novel, a source of beauty, danger, memory and identity.

Thematically, Kormoran talks about the relationship between grandfather and grandson, about the transfer of experience, about attachment to the homeland and about children's dealing with the reality of war. It is also a book about growing up, because Pavo, through his closeness to his grandfather, the sea and the living world around him, gradually enters a more complex world of responsibility and loss.

In Pulić's oeuvre, the novel occupies an important place as a work in which the homeland, nature and experience of contemporary Croatian reality are strongly combined. Its special value lies in its sensitive depiction of the sea and childhood, but also in the fact that it brings serious topics closer to the young reader without oversimplifying them.