Böcker i Serbian Literature-serien

Written between 1980 and 1986, the six stories that constitute The Lute and the Scars (as well as an untitled piece by the author, included here as "e;A and B"e;) were transcribed from the manuscripts left by Danilo Kis following his death in 1989. Like the title story, many of these texts are autobiographical. Others resurrect protagonists belonging to Kis's fellow Central European novelists, allowing readers to identify, perhaps, depending on the level of obfuscation, fantasy,and historical accuracy, figures dreamed up by Odon von Horvath and Endre Ady ("e;The Stateless"e;), by the Yugoslavian Nobel laureate Ivo Andric ("e;Debt"e;), and by Piotr Rawicz.Against a background of oppressive regimes and political exile, readers will find that the never-ending debate between death and writing continues unabated in these stories-death as allegory or as a voluntary symbolic act, and writing as the one impregnable defense, writing as the only possible means of survival.

Written when he was only twenty-five, before embarking on the masterpieces that would make him an integral figure in twentieth-century letters, Psalm 44 shows Kis at his most lyrical and unguarded, demonstrating that even in "e;the place of dragons . . . covered with the shadow of death,"e; there can still be poetry. Featuring characters based on actual inmates and warders-including the abominable Dr. Mengele-Psalm 44 is a baring of many of the themes, patterns, and preoccupations Kis would return to in future, albeit never with the same starkness or immediacy.

The Attic is Danilo Kis's first novel. Written in 1960, published in 1962, and set in contemporary Belgrade, it explores the relationship of a young man, known only as Orpheus, to the art of writing; it also tracks his relationship with a colorful cast of characters with nicknames such as Eurydice, Mary Magdalene, Tam-Tam,and Billy Wise Ass. Rich with references to music, painting, philosophy, and gastronomy, this bohemian Bildungsroman is a laboratory of technique and style for the young Kis at once a depiction of life in literary Belgrade, a register of stylistic devices and themes that would recur throughout Kis's oeuvre, and an account of one young man's quest to find a way to balance his life, his loves, and his art.