Okretište deals with the protagonist’s severe psychological and physical trauma following an attempt on his life. It constitutes his way of dealing with and finding mechanisms to restore trust in people and everyday life. Following his repeated, outspoken pronouncements against nationalistic views predominant in the region of Croatia where he hails from, Karakaš was the victim of a brutal stabbing in 2017. This is Karakaš’s most intimate novel, in which he conveys with courage, honesty and all his vulnerability the helplessness, paranoia and anger following such a dramatic experience, and depicts his struggle between revenge’s desire and need of returning to normal life.  Okretište is above all an attempt to give trauma an artistic form in order to forgive and, through forgiveness, to forget.

Neither spectacle nor sensationalism but, stripped to his core, the book is a touching tribute to life and survival.

MESA SELIMOVIC AWARD WINNER 2021

“…not a thriller or a crime story. And not the brutal auto-fictional prose with which to astound the readership. Okretište is Karakaš‘s kindest book, which talks about how man is a vulnerable being.” – Miljenko Jergović

“[…] anchored even more deeply in the autobiographical […] with an even stronger, lapidary expressiveness, […] Karakaš wrote a powerful story about darkness and love.” – Mirjana Jurišić, literary critic

“[…] this is perhaps the best novel from the region that I have read in recent years. […] This novel was not only written, it was lived and then written […] not with feelings of hatred, but with a feeling for tenderness. That is why it is magnificent and unique.” – Nenad Obradović, PORTAL XXZ, Serbia

 

120 Pages – Original language: Croatian (disput, 2021) – Foreign Editions: Serbian (Booka, 2022), Macedonian (Pagoma Press, 2023)