The author Dubravka Ugrešić tells a story of her eccentric neighbours by describing twenty seven different types of mischievous house sprites and the ways they affect the everyday lives of the building’s inhabitants.
Stories of the neighbours’ eccentricities are cleverly disguised as tales of supernatural beings that cheekily disrupt people’s lives.
L: Some sprites like to tease people and nibble on canapés. They travel from apartment to apartment by hiding in pockets. R: You know the weird gurgling sounds the pipes sometimes make? You can thank a snoring house sprite for that.
The decision to draw all the illustrations by hand was made in one of the first meetings with the editor and author. The analogue drawing techniques were perfect for depicting the human flaws, eccentricities, mistakes and the fact that we are all just works in progress.
Imagine being a police officer regulating traffic and suddenly getting a visit from a sprite that makes you giggle uncontrollably. Quite unfortunate!
The mistakes in the drawings (like the green splashes of watercolour on the left side of the drawing below) were deliberately kept in the final spreads, because of course there’s a sprite responsible for just that type of accident.
Some house sprites resemble mice but are by no means harmless to cats. Many a cat has been known to lose at least one whisker to these feisty little creatures. One way to appease them is to knit small red hats and present them as gifts.
The sprites make this lady’s doors so squeaky that she decides to begin entering her apartment through a window. Fortunately, she lives on the 1st floor, so the chair is a completely lobvious stand in for stairs.
Some house sprites conveniently live in your hair and make you fall asleep. Quite an unfortunate thing to happen whilst you’re cooking.
L: These sprites are easily mistaken for dust bunnies, but don’t be fooled! They use dust as camouflage while obsessivelystealing small objects lying around the house. R: Some sprites are quite musical and use pasta as instruments.
Others live in your planters and make your plants grow big and strong.
Some of them live in vinegar bottles and, if you’re not careful, can easily infest your salads. Be extremely careful when you run out of vinegar and decide to borrow some from your neighbour!
Written by Dubravka Ugrešić, designed by Ivana Borovnjak, published by Oaza Books. Get it here.