Baba Yaga Laid an Egg

According to Slavic myth, Baba Yaga is a witch who lives in a house built on chicken legs and kidnaps small children. In Baba Yaga Laid an Egg, internationally acclaimed writer Dubravka Ugresic takes the timeless legend and spins it into a fresh and distinctly modern tale of femininity, aging, identity, and love.

With barbed wisdom and razor-sharp wit, Ugresic weaves together the stories of four women in contemporary Eastern Europe: a writer who grants her dying mother's final wish by traveling to her hometown in Bulgaria, an elderly woman who wakes up every day hoping to die, a buxom blonde hospital worker who's given up on love, and a serial widow who harbors a secret talent for writing. Through the women's fears and desires, and their struggles against invisibility, Ugresic presents a brilliantly postmodern retelling of an ancient myth that is infused with humanity and the joy of storytelling.

“Powerful . . . Majestic . . . Ugresic has created a wise, sharp fairy tale of her own. And like one of those mythic stories, it's slow to reveal its secrets. Every element has hidden meaning, and repeat readings are rewarded. . . . It's a work worthy of any crone. And I mean that as a compliment."”

"--NPR (Books We Like)

"[A] strange and wonderful book . . . I couldn't stop reading. . . . Ugresic is affecting and eloquent . . . [and writes] with earthy grace." --Mary Gaitskill, Bookforum

"Here we find [Ugresic] at her punk-rock best, writing scenes of potent mischief while complicating Baba Yaga's scary-old-hag image in the process. . . . In prose that manages to be both fairy-tale-like and blunt, [she] details the physical and psychological ravages of age--not only betrayals by the body and the mind, but the social expectation of preserving youthfulness and prolonging life. . . . Ugresic cleverly undermines the myth, arguing that real women are dynamic, infinitely varied--and still dangerous."--Time Out New York

"[A] biting and profound new fairy tale."--The Week

"One of the most erudite and skilled contemporary Eastern European writers . . . [Ugresic possesses] a relentless and acute eye for sociocultural detail, a gift for corrosive satire, an effortless command of Europe's literary and philosophical traditions, and a perverse, lighthearted desire to toy with form. . . . Her prose [is] deceptively simple, learned, and emotionally direct. . . . [With] concision, true attentiveness to the resonances between mythic and contemporary history, an autocratically free and skilled hand . . . [Ugresic is a] wise and masterful modern artist who animates, alters, and appropriates to new purpose our distant cultural past."--The Daily Beast

"Baba Yaga Laid an Egg is a witty, provocative novel about old women, their idiosyncrasies, foibles, and secret powers. A mix of fiction, fantasy, folklore, and memoir . . . told with intelligence, enthusiasm, and sly digs at current cultural customs. . . . Baba Yaga Laid an Egg is a mordant tour de force that keeps the reader chuckling, moved throughout by the poignancy of the characters."--The Washington Times

"A mirthlessly witty divertimento on female old age. Ugresic's meta-narrative sings with intelligence; its cryptic weirdness challenges the reader. . . . A whirligig of outrageous invention."--The Independent

"Ugresic's style is eminently readable, and the novel is as ambitious as it is rewarding. . . . Readers unafraid of the fantastic will find many surprising riches in Ugresic's work."--Library Journal

"There's no better writer to take Baba Yaga on than the brilliantly relentless, sly Dubravka Ugresic--a writer who bites. . . . [Baba Yaga Laid an Egg] moves along with breathtaking clarity . . . [proving that] sexism and ageism and ism-ing in general is a way to deflect the real power of real human beings, to subordinate it to a perverse social order. . . . I don't think any reader will part with Baba Yaga Laid an Egg without joining, or fearing, the proletarian Hag International, the crazy army of score-settling Baba Yagas. . . . [A] dazzlingly mean work of a great writer."--Bookslut

"[Ugresic's] instincts as a storyteller are sure. . . . A playful, inventive, and humane look at women and aging."--Kirkus Reviews

"Ugresic's postmodern take on myth, femininity, and aging provides a beautifully written window into Slavic literature."--Publishers Weekly

"Told with her characteristic dark humor and sharp intelligence, if you haven't been acquainted with Dubravka Ugresic previously, this book is a fine introduction to her manifold talents."--The Morning News

"Ugresic's multilayered narratives come together as an exploration of femininity, identity, mortality, and folklore's wondrous powers."--Booklist

"A mirthlessly witty divertimento on female old age. Ugresic's meta-narrative sings with intelligence; its cryptic weirdness challenges the reader. . . . A whirligig of outrageous invention."--The Independent

"The message that old crones are the product of 'long-lived, labyrinthine, fertile, profoundly misogynistic but also cathartic work of the imagination' is expressed with humor, eloquence, and anger."--New Statesman

"Ugresic's work belongs in the tradition in which storytelling is a form of fantasy, play, a non-representational patterning of experience, and a defining activity of social criticism. Secular, acerbic, comic, springing from skepticism, her fiction reflects a return to earlier forms: allegory, parable, fable, aphorism, midrashim or proverbial wisdom literature. . . . A hybrid work, a comic fable in three parts, combining autobiography, travel, memoir, fable, satire, and essay. . . . Ugresic's approach to myths opposes the archaic view that there is a time-hallowed truth waiting to be unveiled, instead treating the stories as volatile and dynamic . . . attempting to dispel the ill effects, misery, prejudices, and disgust that bedevil female aging."--London Review of Books

"Ugresic [possesses a] genuinely humorous intelligence. Her wit is bound by no preconceived purposes, and once the story takes off, a wild freedom of association and adventurous discernment is set in motion."--World Literature Today

"Ugresic's retelling may be blisteringly postmodern in its execution but at its heart is a human warmth . . . that infuses it with the sweet magic of storytelling."--Times Saturday Review (UK)

"Dubravka Ugresic's tale weaves this Slavic legend . . . in ways that reaffirm the glorious power of storytelling. Spellbinding stuff."--Metro (UK)

"Ugresic's vision of the senile and the displaced, living among the ruins of the post-Communism and Separatism in one of the five fragmented countries of former Yugoslavia, is astutely analytical of Balkan dystopia, beautifully written, dolefully humorous. . . . Here is Margaret Atwood's dark vision of the speciousness of modern times coexisting comfortably with Molly Keane's sense of absurdity, against a backdrip of the Balkan surreal out of The Good Soldier Schweik. . . . It is a grown up novel with grown up prepositions; its humane vision of the world is driven by great imaginative impetus."--Times Literary Supplement

"Dubravka Ugresic is one of the most interesting writers working today. Her books are consistently good, even across genres. . . . Her fiction is always enjoyable, surprising, captivating, and envelope-pushing. Baba Yaga Laid an Egg is a perfect example of Ugresic's fertile imagination. . . . Its exacting descriptions and twisted plot machinations . . . are vintage Ugresic. . . . Comedic . . . Postmodern . . . A novel that defies most novelistic conventions, that doesn't so much retell the story of Baba Yaga as explode it into several very enjoyable fragments."--Three Percent (online)

"Imaginative . . . An affecting report on the indignities and blessings of aging, a satiric send up of capitalism in Eastern Europe, and an acerbic investigation into shifting social and mythic perceptions of women and power."--The Arts Fuse (online)

"Memorable . . . An examination of women's--particularly older women's--place in society. It's a serious point, of course, but playfully made in a tale which joyfully celebrates women and their relationships with each other, and with the world at large."--Belletrista (online)

"Brilliant . . . [A] wonderful book . . . [Baba Yaga Laid an Egg is] a haunting and moving portrait not just of old age, but also of exile's deep loneliness. . . . In her wild, fun, and imaginative book, Ugresic turns the myth of Baba Yaga on its head . . . [with an] interpretation [that is] searing and inventive. . . . It's going on my list for top reads for the year."--Mostly Fiction Book Reviews (online)

"An affecting report on the indignities and blessings of aging, a satiric send up of capitalism in Eastern Europe, and an acerbic investigation into shifting social and mythic perceptions of women and power."--The World (online)

An acclaimed novelist and essayist, Dubravka Ugresic is a native of the former Yugoslavia who left her homeland in 1993 for political reasons. She now lives in Amsterdam.

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