Chinese Letter

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.

Svetislav Basara, born in 1953, is a major figure in Serbian and Eastern European literature. He is the author of more than twenty literary works, including novels, story collections, and essays. He has received numerous literary awards and his novel Fama o biciklistima [The Fuss about Cyclists, 1988] was proclaimed by Serbian literary critics to be one of the ten best novels of the 1980s.