Luzifer

Like Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, the poetry volume Lucifer (2000) by the Croatia-born Lucia Leman caused a huge outcry and a fatwah on its author immediately upon its release. The award-winning poet was vilified by the Croatian press and refused work on all state institutions for having written a shattering verse narrative, told from the perspective of an incest victim. Apart from having to face her own daily nightmares, sourced in the severe sexual abuse from an alcoholic parent, the incest survivor has to face the humiliations from a community well aware of her “secret”. The scandal around Leman’s book was caused by her own parents, closely associated with the conservative Croatian government. In effect, a public vendetta was launched, where Leman was condemned not on the grounds of giving a false testimony against her parents but for causing a blow to an imagined family honour. In a country wanting a viable democratic structure for a EU-membership, Leman was seen as transgressing against the unwritten law of male ownership over women and children. Lucifer was acquired by the Croatian Ministry of Culture and distributed to the public libraries, launching Leman as a full-time writer. She has been compared to Sylvia Plath and Eve Ensler.