Mazzini described his childhood in
Titoist Yugoslavia, in three novels. The protagonist of the 2002 novel,
King of the Rattling Spirits, (based on his 2001
Sweet Dreams film script) is 12 years old. In the 2015 novel,
Childhood, the protagonist is five. In the third novel ''It's Personal,'' (2022) the protagonist sums up his childhood and its consequences. His first novel
Crumbs (American title
The Cartier Project) was set in his hometown of
Jesenice and published in 1989 and sold 54,000 copies. He was the first Slovenian writer to write a novel about
the erased, people who lost all of their rights and legal status after the declaration of the country's independence in 1991. Later he adapted the novel for the feature film
Erased. His historical novel
Paloma Negra deals with
Yu-Mex music in the 1950s, when Yugoslav singers started mimicking the songs and music they saw in Mexican films. During the research for the novel, Mazzini recorded the stories told by protagonists and made a documentary called
Yugoslav Mexico (YuMex). The novel
German Lottery is set in the same era but deals with swindlers, illusions and unreliable protagonists. Mazzini introduced in the post-1990
Slovene literature a
tough protagonist, characteristic of
Noir fiction, in his novel
Guarding Hanna. His work was selected for international anthologies; including his short story "Mother" included in
Contemporary European Fiction, and "Avro Lancaster" in
Best European Fiction 2018. == Awards ==