ABOUT THIS BOOK

David Albahari is one of the most prominent prose writers to come out of the former Yugoslavia in the last twenty years. His short stories, which developed largely outside the canon of Serbian literature, have influenced a generation of Balkan writers. This collection gathers Albahari's best and most important stories, moving from an early preoccupation with the family and Central European culture to metafictional searches for the roots of his identity.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

DAVID ALBAHARI is one of the most prominent prose writers to come out of the former Yugoslavia in the last twenty years. His short stories, which developed largely outside the canon of Serbian literature, have influenced a generation of Balkan writers.

REVIEWS

"David Albahari cooks up a heady stew of cast iron and remembrance in this selection of masterly short fiction. . . . [W]riting as good as Albahari's goes CNN one better—he gives us news that stays news." —Boston Globe

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"Each of Albahari's stories is a literary experiment. After reading them, one is left with a lingering effect and a wish to go back and reread the tales in order to ponder further the mystery of the creative process of writing." —World Literature Today

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"David Albahari writes in the rich Balkan tradition of urbanity and multiculturalism . . . the stories are less about the particularities of place than about the universal riddles of language . . . playful and good-natured, recalling the metafictions of Robert Coover and Albahari's countryman Danilo Kis." —New York Times Book Review

"A masterly collection . . . accomplished and resonant tales: powerful evidence of the ermergence of yet another important Eastern European writer--and a pleasurable and rewarding surprise for American readers." —Kirkus

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword

Part I
Three Bus Stops Home
Is This Age, Kid?
The Stories We Tell
The Gospel According to My Father
Mama
The Playground
The Damp
The Great Rebellion at the Stuln Nazi Camp
The Movies
An Attempt at Describing the Death of Ruben Rubenović, Former Textiles Salesman
Picture, Window
Jerusalem

Part II
My Wife Has Light Eyes
A Movie on Television
My Wife Loves Cats
Studio Apartment
The Wall
Words Are Something Else
My Wife Softly Sobs
The Cloak

Part III
The Essay
What Does That Prove?
The Writer
Plastic Combs
Buttons
The Pope
Mute Song

Afterword

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