"Kis is one of the major writers of the second half of the century. . . . Kis preserves the honor of literature."
--Susan Sontag
Composed of seven dark tales, A TOMB FOR BORIS DAVIDOVICH presents variations on the theme of political and social self-destruction throughout Eastern Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. The characters in these stories are caught in a world of political hypocrisy, which ultimately leads to death, their common fate. Although the stories Kis tells are based on historical events, the beauty and precision of his prose elevates these ostensibly "true" stories into works of literary art that transcend the politics of their time.
Danilo Kiš(February 22, 1935–October 15, 1989) was a Yugoslavian/Serbian writer of Hungarian/Jewish–Serbian origin.
Kiš was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature and was due to win it, were it not for his untimely death in 1989.