Tight Country: A Novel from Istrian Folk Life

Tijesna zemlja: roman iz istarskog narodnog života ("Narrow Land," or "Tight Country: A Story from Istrian Folk Life") is a novel by Croatian author Mijo Mirković. Mirković is best known as Mate Balota, and he published this novel under that pen name.

The novel tells the story of the life of people on a small piece of Istrian land. Through 20 chapters "the seasons change, people, births, deaths, changes happen, life happens." The action takes place in the area of the village of Rakalj, in southeastern Istria. Described as "an economic and social study of the Istrian villages in the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth century," and "an indirect autobiography," the novel follows the history of an Istrian family through three generations, from 1870 to 1941. Although it wasn't well received in the 1940s, the book later became a cult among Istrian Croats.