The novel by the famous Croatian writer Miljenko Jergović (b. 1966) highlights the life and state of society in Yugoslavia in the period between the two World Wars. The prototype of the main character of the novel is the child prodigy actress Leia Deutsch, who lived in Zagreb and became a victim of the Holocaust at the age of 15. She was deported to a concentration camp, where she died. However, her short life was in the full sense of the word the life of a theater star.

The novel about the tragic fate of Rutф Tannenbaum, written by Jergović, caused controversy: the fate of Croatian Jews during World War II still remains a painful topic for both Jews and Croats.

Miljenko Jergović was born and raised in Sarajevo, and lived there for the first year of the Bosnian War (1992), when the city was besieged. In 1993, Yergovic moved to Zagreb.

For the novel "Ruth Tannenbaum", the author was awarded the Meša Selimović Literary Prize (2007). In addition, he has received a number of awards and prizes for his other novels and short story collections.

The book was published with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture and Mass Media of the Republic of Croatia.