Underground Barbie

A darkly humorous coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the Yugoslav Wars.

As air-raid sirens become commonplace, children in an apartment building escape into a world of Barbie dolls, improvising scenarios that mirror the splintering social structure of 1990s Yugoslavia. Innocence clashes with the horrors of war and the allure of Western consumerism.

Maša Kolanović's Underground Barbie deftly captures the power of imagination to overcome hardship, offering a sharp critique of consumer culture amidst the ruins of a socialist experiment. Discover political campaigns defined by what it means to be a "real" Croatian, a refugee ball with "disgusting" dolls, and a mass grave of Ken's mistresses. For readers of literary fiction, social satire, and war stories.