About
Danilo Kiš was a major 20th-century Yugoslav writer, born in Subotica in 1935. The son of a Hungarian-Jewish father who died at Auschwitz and a Montenegrin mother, his work explores memory, history, and loss. Graduating in comparative literature from Belgrade, he published novels such as Garden, Ashes and Hourglass, acclaimed by critics. His collection A Tomb for Boris Davidovich sparked political controversy in Yugoslavia, to which he responded in The Anatomy Lesson. Exiled in Paris in 1979, he received several awards, including the NIN Award and the Ivo Andrić Prize. He died in Paris in 1989.
* 1935-02-22 — † 1989-10-15
Major works
- Garden, Ashes (1965)novel
- Hourglass (1972)novel
- A Tomb for Boris Davidovich (1976)short story collection
- The Anatomy Lesson (1978)essay
- The Encyclopedia of the Dead (1983)short story collection
Key milestones
- 1958Received the first degree in comparative literature awarded by the University of Belgrade.
- 1972Received the NIN Award for his novel Hourglass.
- 1989Received the PEN/Bruno Schulz Prize from the PEN American Center.
Themes
Memory and historyHolocaust and lossIdentity and exileTotalitarianism and dissentAutobiography and fiction
Sources: sanu.ac.rs · pen.org