Ep. 201: Lidija Hilje (Author of Slanting Towards the Sea) + Book Recommendations

Sarah's Bookshelves Live

Sarah Dickinson

Bookrecommendations, Bookpodcasts, Sarahsbookshelvespodcast, Sarahsbookshelveslivepodcast, Sarahsbookshelveslive, Bookpodcast, Literarypodcast, Whatshouldiread, Arts, Bookreviewpodcast, Reading, Readingpodcast, Books, Sarahsbookshelves

4.9 • 732 Ratings

🗓️ 23 July 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In Episode 201, author Lidija Hilje talks with Sarah about her debut novel, Slanting Towards the Sea. Spanning two decades and one transformative summer in Croatia, Slanting Towards the Sea is a love story that also delves into the profound journey of coming of age in a nation younger than you are. Lidija shares lots of details about how this book came to be and the inspiration for the story and its lush Croatian setting, which becomes a character of its own. They also discuss how the Croatian War of Independence influenced both her own childhood and the novel’s narrative. Plus, Lidija shares some of her top book recommendations!

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CLICK HERE for the full episode Show Notes on the blog.

Highlights

A brief, spoiler-free overview of Slanting Towards the Sea.
Hilje’s inspiration for Slanting Towards the Sea.
How Croatia became its own character in the novel.
The ways Slanting Towards the Sea developed and was impacted by Lidija’s never-to-be-published first novel.
The impact of the Croatian War of Independence (1991–1995) on Lidija’s childhood and the events of the book.
How Lidija shaped the ending of the novel over time.
What inspired making “people pleasing” such a strong element of Ivona’s character.
The complete, upending change that forever shelved her first attempt at a novel.

Lidija’s Book Recommendations [35:58]

Two OLD Books She Loves

Gioavanni’s Room by James Baldwin (1956) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [36:12]
Euphoria by Lily King (2014) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [39:10]
Other Books Mentioned:
- Writers & Lovers by Lily King (2020) [41:10]

Two NEW Books She Loves

Audition by Katie Kitamura (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [41:33]
The Anthropologists by Ayşegül Savaş (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [44:55]
Other Books Mentioned:
- Intimacies by Katie Kitamura (2021) [41:44]
- Trust by Hernán Díaz (2023) [43:41]
- Second Place by Rachel Cusk (2021) [43:43]

One Book She DIDN’T Love

Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney (2021) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [46:34]

One NEW RELEASE She’s Excited About

This Kind of Trouble by Tochi Eze (August 5, 2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [48:52]

Last 5-Star Book Lidija Read

We Were the Universe by Kimberly King Parsons (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [50:35]

Books From the Discussion

You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith (2023) [22:03]

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Sarah's Bookshelves Live. I'm your host, Sarah Dickinson. Join me every other week as we get real, and sometimes a bit snarky about books and reading. Let's get rolling.
0:20.7	I shared slanting Towards the Sea on the
0:23.3	summer preview episode before I'd read it, if you all remember back in early June. So I've now read it,
0:29.2	and I absolutely loved it. Slanting towards the sea is a love story and a coming of age story
0:34.7	set over 20 years on the coast of Croatia. It's beautifully written,
0:39.1	reflective, and sad. And the Croatian setting is lush and vivid. So I am thrilled to welcome
0:45.6	Lydia Hillia, author of Slanting Towards the Sea to the podcast. Lydia is a Croatian novelist and
0:51.5	certified book coach. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times
0:55.2	and other outlets. After 10 years of trying cases before Croatian courts, she obtained a book
1:01.6	coaching certification and has been working professionally with writers ever since. She lives in Zadat,
1:07.6	Croatia, with her husband and two daughters. Welcome, Lydia. Thank you so much for having me and for the beautiful introduction.
1:16.2	Well, thank you for writing such a beautiful book and it really is beautiful. I felt that setting so deeply in Croatia is one of the countries on my bucket list of places I would like to visit. Thank you so much. That
1:29.5	means the world to me. So for those who have not read Slanting Towards the Sea yet, can you give us
1:34.9	a brief overview without spoiling anything? Yeah, sure. So Slanting Towards the Sea is a story about
1:41.6	a 38-year-old woman who's divorced the love of her life a decade
1:46.8	ago for reasons that are only known to her and her mother-in-law. Since then, she has moved back in
1:53.8	with her father, lives with her father, and her career is flailing. And she finds solace in reconnecting with her ex-husband and his new wife.
2:04.8	But then when she meets a new man, when a new man enters her life, the carefully curated
2:10.5	dynamic between all four gets dislodged or disrupted and reckoning is to be had for all involved.
2:21.2	What was your inspiration for this story?
2:23.4	I guess I always wondered about how it would be to, I'm very close with my husband.
2:31.4	Like we've been together since we were 18.
	...

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