Lidija is a Literary Fiction writer and a certified book coach based in Croatia.
After over ten years of trying cases before Croatian courts, she traded in her legal briefcase for a sharpened pencil, and has been writing and working professionally with writers ever since. She appeared as a guest on several podcasts for writers, including The Sh*t No One Tells You About Writing. Her articles and essays were published in the New York Times, and other outlets. She runs a book club for writers with a membership of close to 100, and is an active member of the WFWA.
For virtual book clubs and book events, please reach out to Lidija’s publicist Shannon Hennessey at Simon&Schuster, at shannon[dot]hennessey[at]simonandschuster[dot]com.
SLANTING TOWARDS THE SEA
Simon & Schuster, July 2025
Spanning across twenty years and one life-altering summer in Croatia, Slanting Towards the Sea is at once an unforgettable love story and a powerful exploration of what it means to come of age in a country younger than oneself.
It is a cinematic, emotionally searing literary debut about the fragile nature of potential and the transcendence of love.
“Oh, what a beautiful book this is—deeply felt, humane, gorgeously written. Hilje’s prose is positively hypnotic––I sunk in and didn’t want to come up for air.”
— Claire Lombardo, bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had and Same As It Ever Was
Set against the wild beauty of Croatia’s coastal landscape at the fragile dawn of a new era, SLANTING TOWARDS THE SEA is an unforgettable testament to the transformative powers of radical intimacy and the courage it takes to break free of the past in order to claim a life of your own. A novel of extraordinary heart that holds a rare tenderness for all its characters and their deeply human complexities, it is one of the most moving and evocative debuts I have had the pleasure of reading in a long time. Lidija Hilje’s prose is mesmerizing—each sentence has a tidal pull.
––Madelaine Lucas, author of Thirst for Salt
"With illuminating prose and gripping storytelling, Hilje asserts her place among the very few exciting new voices in world's literature who can bridge across languages and cultures. SLANTING TOWARDS THE SEA is a love letter to Croatia and to anyone who dares to dream."
— Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, internationally bestselling author of The Mountains Sing and Dust Child
“SLANTING TOWARDS THE SEA is an utterly hypnotic debut that wrings a reader's attention with fierce and breathtaking acuity. Each page is flooded with transportive prose and stirring intimacy as Hilje weaves the story of three enmeshed souls whose longing is only eclipsed by the stunning grace they offer one another. This novel unfurls within the complicated beauty of Croatia, an ideal cinematic backdrop to this extraordinary love story. Artful, intensely moving, and unforgettable in every way.”
— Thao Thai, author of Banyan Moon
"With precision and tenderness, Lidija Hilje explores love, intimacy, family, duty, and the complex beauty of making a life for yourself that is very different from the one you were expecting. SLANTING TOWARDS THE SEA is thoughtful, compelling, and refreshing in its clear-eyed, assured style--this is a profound and deeply moving debut."
–– Kimberly King Parsons, author of the USA Today-bestselling novel We Were the Universe, and the National Book Award-longlisted story collection Black Light.
With care, Lidija Hilje explores the difficult, often contradictory realities of love as feeling, duty, and practice in Slanting Towards the Sea. Tender toward its people and its gorgeously realized Croatian setting, this thoughtful debut considers how we make a life from what we are given, even when it is not what we asked for.
— Amy Lin, author of Here After
ALSO COMING TO UK & COMMONWEALTH
Daunt Books Publishing, July 2025
“A hypnotic debut that sets a decades-long love story against the beautiful coastline of an emerging Croatia - sun, sea, food, a love triangle, this is pure escapism for lovers of Coco Mellors and Ann Napolitano.”