Ten-year-old Emil lives with his mother in a rented flat in an unnamed European city. While she works hard in a low-paid job, Emil struggles to understand school work, abstract maths and the motivations of the adults that surround him. He is a special boy who talks to some people normally while with others is fully or partially mute. His uncle Jakov thinks that everything to do with Emil is about intimacy and trust. He searches for a way to get close to him. Blind Professor Antun delights in his acute, almost magical hearing abilities and the local drug dealer connives to take advantage of the boy’s guilelessness.
A story about a boy with special needs called Emil who understands everything and yet is so rarely understood.

Special Needs reads like a modern-day To Kill a Mockingbird. Where the heart-breaking truth of life is narrated through the voice of an innocent child. With the perception and skill of an artist in charge of her craft. The author has created for us the unforgettable character of Emil, who understands everything and yet is so rarely understood.

About the author — Special Needs

Lada Vukić was born in Zadar and graduated from the Juraj Baraković High School and the Blagoje Bersa High School of Music. For her short stories have been published in several magazines and online portals, and have garnered a number of awards. In 2013, she was shortlisted for the national Večernjak Literary Award in Croatia. Special Needs is her first novel and won the V.B.Z award for the best-unpublished novel of 2016.

About the translate

Christina Pribićević-Zorić translated over 35 works of fiction and non-fiction from Serbian/Croatian and French into English, including The Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavić, Zlata’s Diary by Zlata Filipović, Tales of Old Sarajevo by Isak Samokovlija, and Frida’s Bed by Slavenka Drakulić. She was awarded the Serbian P.E.N. Award for Translation, the Djuro Daničić Award for Translation, and the Outstanding Achievement Award, Radio Yugoslavia.

V.B.Z. d.o.o.