Grobnica za Borisa Davidoviča
Today, some fifty years after the first printing, A Tomb for Boris Davidovich is considered one of the best prose books published in the former Yugoslavia, and it has become part of the world literary canon.
The novellas are based on historical events and deal with the themes of political deception, betrayal and murder in Eastern Europe in the first half of the 20th century (except for the novella Dogs and the book in which the action takes place in the 14th century). Some of the stories are written as fictional biographies in which the main characters interact with real people.
Kiš wrote this book while working at the University of Bordeaux, motivated mainly by his frustration caused by the ignorance and disbelief of his students who, mostly left-leaning, refused to believe in the very existence of the gulag.
The book has undergone dozens of editions in the former state, and has been translated into more than 20 languages.
The tomb for Boris Davidovich was the cause of one of the greatest polemics in the history of Serbian literature, from which Kiš's brilliant book Anatomy Lesson originated.
One copy is available