 
|
Chinese LetterAuthor: Svetislav Basara Translator: Ana Lucic Eastern European Literature Series December 2004 180 pages, 5.5 x 8.5 Dimensions: Paperback, 1-56478-374-X Retail Paperback Price: Our Paperback Price: $10.36—20% OFF! 
|
|
Book Description
Ordered by two mysterious men to write a statement of about 100 pages, the narrator of Chinese Letter—who's not sure of his name, but calls himself Fritz—faithfully records the bizarre occurrences of his daily life: his absurd conversations with his mother who is abducted by slave traders, his visits to his friend who works in the hospital's autopsy room, and his sister's tumultuous marriage to the butcher's son, to name a few. Widely respected in Serbia, the term "Basarian" has been coined to refer to his unique writing style, reminiscent of the best of Samuel Beckett for its directness, existential pondering, and odd sense of humor.About the Author
|
Svetislav Basara is the author of more than twenty literary works, including novels, story collections, and essays. He has received numerous Serbian literary awards, and his novel Fuss about Cyclists was proclaimed by Serbian literary critics to be one of the ten best novels of the last decade. He was born in 1953 and has lived in Serbia for almost his entire life. |
About the Translator
| Ana Lucic has worked as a Foreign Language Editor at Dalkey Archive Press since 2004. |
Praise
"Svetislav Basara has written a fragmentary book in which, despite lots of digressions, the central theme can be clearly seen—an uninterrupted dispute between, not quasi-philosophical, but quite existential terms of I and Nothing. Coming face to face with the wild emptiness in the world with no firm grounding is the characteristic of a whole trend in modern art—speaking about nothing in a most convincing way, he writes about the status of individuality in this century."—Mihajlo Pantic"Svetislav Basara—enfant terrible of Serbian contemporary prose—has written a heartfelt narrative about the age we live in."—Tihomir Brajovic
"One of the best authors of the current generation. The most intriguing Serbian writer since Danilo Kis."—Natasa Milosavljevic