What is your initial association at the mention of Branislav Nušić? Cabnet Minister’s Wife? A Suspicious Person? Comedy?

No one can blame you for choosing any of these answers. Yet the name of Nušić always reminds me of the Hajduks.

Perhaps because my first encounter with the great comedy writer was actually this novel, rather than any of his famous dramas.

Maybe this is because even today, so many years afterwards, I still remember the adventures of Čeda Brba and his company, as if I were one of them.

And come to think of it, weren’t I? And then a smile flickers across my face.

Times are changing, yet some things remain the same. Children will always be children, with their games, worries, first loves and, of course, mischiefs. To eternity.