Additional information
by Sven Popovic (Author), Vinko Zgaga (Translator)
Candid and unfettered, Sven Popovic's Last Night is a playfully existential meditation on youth and the search for the self.
Acclaimed in his native Croatia, Popovic's unique blend of intimacy and contemplation has garnered him a following in the alternative literary scene of Zagreb-and beyond. With an intellectualism that never takes itself too seriously, an unaffected fluidity of form, and a keen eye for the smallest, strangest moments that color our lives, his stories weave an offbeat tapestry of urban life.
Last Night is the first short story collection from Sven Popovic, whose writing was previously featured in Dalkey Archive Press's Best European Fiction 2017, and his first full work to be released in English. Slickly translated by Vinko Zgaga, Popovic's sometimes-dreamlike, sometimes-conversational vignettes offer a shrewd, original outlook on life's absurdities.
Author Biography
Sven Popovic was born on September 19, 1989 in Zagreb, in the part of Yugoslavia now known as Croatia. His short stories were published in the anthology of young Croatian writers (Bez vrata, bez kucanja, Sandorf 2012), in a collection of short stories Record Stories (Aquarius Records, 2011) and various magazines and webzines like Quorum, Zarez, and Arteist. As a freelance journalistm he has contriubuted to several magazines such as Zarez, Aktual, and the Austrian leftist magazine Wespennest, as well as writing literary and album reviews for various webzines. His collection of short stories, Last Night (Meandarmedia) came out in 2015 and received excellent reviews. Several of his stories were included in Best European Fiction 2017 (Dalkey Archive Press). His first novel, Uvjerljivo drugi, was published in 2018, and his second, Mali i Levijatan, in 2024.
Vinko Zgaga has translated several plays for stage production, including Tennessee Williams's Orpheus Descending (2008), Christopher Durang's The Marriage of Bette and Boo (2009), and Simon Stephens's Light Falls (2022). He has a long-standing working relationship with the Croatian Centre of the International Theatre Institute, having translated many plays for their Croatian Theatre Showcase event and the texts of several Croatian authors into English, including Dino Pesut's play Static, Mate Matisic's trilogy Wax People, and Sven Popovic's short-story collection Last Night.
