It’s June in 1970s Montenegro; school’s just let out and Catherine’s head is full of Boney M lyrics and playing ‘cops and robbers’ with her summer crush. Then tragedy rips the heart from her little family and Catherine’s life takes on a new trajectory. As she strives to find her place amongst her fractured family, her friends and the cities she lives in, Catherine grapples with the conflicting ideologies of Yugoslavia’s twilight years and with her developing identities as a daughter, granddaughter, wife, mother and mistress. Carefully crafted characters and masterful, dynamic storytelling place Catherine the Great and the Small in the company of the very best novels, which speak about the reality of their geographic setting and are remembered for their convincing, strong, maladjusted characters.