Josip "Joža" Horvat (10 March 1915 – 26 October 2012) was a

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

n writer. He was the author of many novels,

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

, dramas, screenplays, essays and

radio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...

s, translated into at least nine languages, including Russian, Chinese and Esperanto.

Life and career

Horvat was born in Kotoriba, Međimurje,

northern Croatia Northern Croatia or North Croatia ( hr, Sjeverna Hrvatska, ) refers to the northern parts of Croatia, encompassing Zagreb, Varaždin, Međimurje, Zagorje and Koprivnica-Križevci counties, including the cities of Zagreb, Varaždin, Čakovec, ...

, at the time in

Zala County Zala ( hu, Zala megye, ; ; ) is an administrative county ( comitatus or ''megye'') in south-western Hungary. It is named after the Zala River. It shares borders with Croatia ( Koprivnica–Križevci and Međimurje Counties) and Slovenia ( Lend ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

he fought in

Yugoslav Partisans The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Slovene: , or the National Liberation Army, sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska (NOV), Народноослободилачка војска (НОВ); mk, Народноослобод� ...

, which later inspired the novel '' Mačak pod šljemom'' (''Tomcat under a Helmet'', 1962) which had a somewhat ironical view of the partisan movement, adapted both into a feature film and a miniseries. The screenplay '' Ciguli Miguli'' (1952), critical of bureaucracy, briefly brought him into disfavour with the

Communist party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

authorities, on which occasion he turned to sailing. In mid-1960s Horvat and his family sailed the world in the

sailing yacht A sailing yacht (US ship prefixes SY or S/Y), is a leisure craft that uses sails as its primary means of propulsion. A yacht may be a sail or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, so the term applie ...

''Besa'', and his

travel journal The genre of travel literature encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. One early travel memoirist in Western literature was Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century CE. In the early modern period ...

'' Besa–brodski dnevnik'' (''Besa–Ship's Log'', 1973) became a best-seller. The second trip around the world was marked by tragedy: Horvat’s older son, who stayed back, died in a traffic accident in 1973, and his younger son drowned in

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

in 1975. After a period of deep crisis Horvat published two acclaimed novels inspired by these events, '' Operacija "Stonoga"'' (''Operation "Centipede"'', 1982), about a search for a lost island in the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

, and '' Waitapu'' (1984), about a

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...

boy who decides to sail across a

taboo A taboo or tabu is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, sacred, or allowed only for certain persons.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...

line. His last work is a memoir titled '' Svjedok prolaznosti'' (''A Witness to Impermanence'', 2005). Horvat attended the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb and served as a secretary of Matica hrvatska.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Horvat, Joza 1915 births 2012 deaths Yugoslav writers Croatian screenwriters Yugoslav Partisans members Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb alumni Vladimir Nazor Award winners People from Kotoriba