[3][2] Drndić grew up in both Croatia and Serbia, with her father eventually moving the family to Belgrade.

[3] She then obtained a master's degree in theatre and communications from Southern Illinois University in the United States, which she attended with the aid of a Fulbright scholarship.

[5] The author of a number of books, Drndić is best known for her award-winning novel Sonnenschein (2007), translated into English as Trieste (2012).

An English translation by Hawkesworth and Susan Curtis of Drndić's earlier work Doppelgänger was published in Great Britain by Istros Books in 2018, and in the United States by New Directions in 2019.

[8] Her last book, EEG, translated into English by Celia Hawkesworth, was published by MacLehose Press in the UK and New Directions in the US in 2019.