WestWords acquires Curic debut novel
WestWords Books has acquired world rights to debut novel Sing to Me by Jelena Curic.
‘Sing to Me tells the story of Pero, a Croatian immigrant, father, husband, musician, and philanderer who drinks too much and gambles the family’s income,’ said the publisher. ‘When Yugoslavia’s President Tito dies and his mother’s health fails, Pero feels he must return “home”. […] Traversing villages and cities hushed by the communist regime, revisiting the majestic waterfalls of Plitvice Jezera and the snow-covered peaks of the Velebit Mountains, Pero is compelled to face a past that he has tried to forget.’
Curic is a writer of literary fiction, crime and comedy, in novel and short story forms. In 2023, she attended the WestWords Academy – a year-long development program for emerging writers – and in 2024, she was selected for the WestWords Accelerator program, during which she developed her novel manuscript. She has had work published in the organisation’s anthologies Bad Western Sydney: The Second Case and Living Stories: The Other City, as well as the Short Stories Unlimited anthology Leaving Home. Curic was shortlisted for the Born Writers Award in 2023 and 2024.
‘Along with writing novels, short stories and comedy pieces, she is also the resident diva in the Croatian community, singing most weekends,’ added WestWords.
Publisher Michael Campbell said: ‘From the opening pages of Sing to Me, the richness of the imagery immediately captivated me. But it was how Jelena wove the reconciliation of family legacy, history and culture that lies at the heart of the novel with such deftness and profound humanity, humour and empathy that made me fall in love with it. It is the story of reclaiming life and heritage, how to belong, how to live, in two countries at once. Isn’t that we are all doing living in one of the world’s most multicultural societies?’
‘This is a story that I have weaved together through memories of being a child in my parents’ homeland during a time when being Croatian left them being viewed with suspicion, when the politics of the old country was brought to the new, and their stories became part of my narrative growing up in the western suburbs of Sydney,’ said Curic. ‘Through my love of music and the songs sung to me by my mother, the stories told over cups of Turkish style coffee and shots of rakija, I hope to take the reader to a time and place that may be unfamiliar to them – along with characters that are larger than life, filled with passion and despair.’
WestWords Books is the adult trade imprint of WestWords Western Sydney Centre for Writing. Sing to Me is scheduled for publication on 1 September 2025.
Category: Local news Rights and acquisitions
