The debut novel by Ana Kalin, I Should Have Met Her Yesterday, published in 2025 by the publishing house Hirondelle in the Polyphonies series, is a story about the search for belonging, fleeing and returning to oneself, about women’s experiences, migration, racism, inequality and community. At the centre of the narrative is Živa, who, following personal and professional disappointment, moves to the Netherlands and opens a small bookshop there – a space that gradually also becomes a metaphor for her inner world.
The story follows Živa, the owner of a small bookshop in the Netherlands, who faces the challenges of business failure, loneliness and unfulfilled expectations. After moving from Slovenia, she hopes to find inner peace and meaning in her new surroundings, but soon finds herself confronted with the question: is fleeing really a solution, or merely a postponement of the inevitable confrontation with oneself? A series of unexpected encounters – with the mysterious Beatrix, her former partner Kees and new acquaintances such as Dobru – slowly leads her to reflect on what it truly means to belong to a place, to people and, above all, to oneself.
Reviews and Responses:
🔴 Even before its publication, AirBeletrina included the novel among the books anticipated and eagerly awaited in 2025.
In their presentation of the novel, they wrote:
“I Should Have Met Her Yesterday is a story about accepting oneself and others.”
AirBeletrina highlights Živa’s journey from fleeing her past to encounters with people through whom she begins to understand that every person carries their own burdens – some inherited, others connected to loss, and still others to the inequalities of the society in which we live.
Bukla: “Nothing in the Novel Is Accidental.”
Maja Črepinšek wrote about the novel in Bukla 189 (September–October 2025).
“Nothing in the novel is accidental.”
The reviewer draws particular attention to the novel’s carefully considered structure: spaces become metaphors for psychological processes, while names, music, books, plants, food, smells and even the colours of clothing carry meaning. Alongside the intimate story of the protagonist, the novel also opens up to broader questions of the experience of being a foreigner, migration, discrimination, racism, gender inequality and social pressures.
Between the Wild Garden and the Bookshop: A Story of Belonging
In an extensive interview for Jantarna lastovka, Ana Kalin discusses the writing of the novel, life in the Netherlands, the bookshop as a place of refuge, the Wild Garden, femininity, racism, identity and the question of what it actually means to belong to someone or somewhere.
As the author says:
“The stories of Živa, but also those of Dobru and the other heroines, revolve around the search for their own identity in the world we live in today.”
The novel therefore does not seek to offer simple solutions. On the contrary, it opens up a space in which it is possible to reflect on different life experiences, social relations and the ways in which we see one another.
Read the interview “Between the Wild Garden and the Bookshop: A Story of Belonging”
Ana Kalin on Story Generators
We also devoted an episode of Story Generators (Generatorji zgodb) on Radio AGORA to the novel I Should Have Met Her Yesterday.
The almost hour-long conversation explores questions that run through the entire novel: why we flee, what it means to start again, and whether it is possible to create a space in a foreign environment where, for the first time, we truly feel at home.
As the novel is presented in the programme:
“The novel subtly addresses the themes of fleeing from oneself, the search for belonging, inner struggles and the rift between expectations and reality.”
The programme was broadcast on 12 August 2025 on Radio AGORA.
Listen to Story Generators – Ana Kalin
