The book A Letter in a Letter is an unusual form of an epistolary novel: it is designed in the form of a letter exchange which took place over the course of almost two years between the author Jasna Horvat and Irena Vrkljan, the first lady of the Croatian literary autobiography. Written with the techniques like epistolary immediacy, simultaneousness, quotation, documentary, scientific annotation and lyric passages the novel brings an abundance of cultural themes, emotions and questions about identity and true values.
The author of the book is the professor at the Faculty of Economics in Osijek and as the narrator seeks room for herself in the gap between arid profession and lively escapes from everyday life, between Osijek and global touristic travels, between everyday working life and all sorts of perusals. In her simple, but elaborate, in no way pathetic, inconspicuously documented, emotional and always witty letters to Irena, the author writes about her travel impressions, her literary and cultural observations based upon numerous qoutes, her family memories and recollections while trying to find her own "essence" and thus establish her own identity despite all the gaps and the dissipations facing her.
The book has been inspired by Irena's book Pisma mladoj ženi (Letters to a Young Woman). As an accomplished author, Irena Vrkljan has advertently accepted the role of a means to help the development of Jasna's persona and art, and Jasna has assumed the role of a young, talented woman who by meeting the great Irena develops her own personality and art in a diverse and splendid manner.