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Fata Morgana
Svetislav Basara's short fiction plays wild games with time and space while nonetheless keeping one foot grounded at all times in the real-life concerns of a young writer during the late communist and postcommunist eras in the former Yugoslavia. Dealing with civil war and other matters of life and death, Basara's stories remain stubbornly eccentric, retaining every quirk, kink, and convolution made famous in his celebrated English-language debut novel, Chinese Letter.
210 pages, Paperback
First published October 6, 2015
About the author
Svetislav Basara
67 books144 followersSvetislav Basara (Serbian cyrillic: Светислав Басара) is a Serbian writer and columnist.
He is the author of more than forty literary works, including novels, story collections, and essays. For his novel Fuss about Cyclists (Fama o biciklistima) David Albahari said: "After the appearance of The Fuss about Cyclists, one can safely say, the Serbian prose has never been the same, just like Basara has never been the same author, just like I have never been the same reader again."
Basara received the NIN Prize, a prestigious Serbian literary award for the best novel, twice. In 2006 for 'Uspon i pad Parkinsonove bolesti' (The Rise and the Fall of Parkinson's Disease). and in 2020 for the novel Kontraendorfin (Counter-endorphin).
He was the ambassador of FR Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) in Cyprus from 2001 to 2005.
He is the author of more than forty literary works, including novels, story collections, and essays. For his novel Fuss about Cyclists (Fama o biciklistima) David Albahari said: "After the appearance of The Fuss about Cyclists, one can safely say, the Serbian prose has never been the same, just like Basara has never been the same author, just like I have never been the same reader again."
Basara received the NIN Prize, a prestigious Serbian literary award for the best novel, twice. In 2006 for 'Uspon i pad Parkinsonove bolesti' (The Rise and the Fall of Parkinson's Disease). and in 2020 for the novel Kontraendorfin (Counter-endorphin).
He was the ambassador of FR Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) in Cyprus from 2001 to 2005.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 25, 2017
Experimental. Existential. Absurd.
I probably had a bemused and quizzical look on my face the entire time I was reading this. It makes your brain twist.
The first and longest story begins when the protagonist, if you can call him that, tries to convince his father that he -- the narrator -- doesn't exist. It's so intentionally existential that you can't fault it for that at all, but it's put to better use in some places more than others.
In "A Perfect Crime" there was more of a standard narrative combined with the absurdist frame and Wittgensteinian plays on language of the earlier stories. That was more accessible without compromising any of the uniqueness of the approach.
I probably had a bemused and quizzical look on my face the entire time I was reading this. It makes your brain twist.
The first and longest story begins when the protagonist, if you can call him that, tries to convince his father that he -- the narrator -- doesn't exist. It's so intentionally existential that you can't fault it for that at all, but it's put to better use in some places more than others.
In "A Perfect Crime" there was more of a standard narrative combined with the absurdist frame and Wittgensteinian plays on language of the earlier stories. That was more accessible without compromising any of the uniqueness of the approach.
Displaying 1 of 1 review