Danilo Kiš

Danilo Kiš was born to a Jewish father and a Christian mother in Subotica, Yugoslavia (now Serbia). In 1939, fearful of the antisemitism rising throughout Europe, Kiš’s parents baptized their children in the Orthodox Church and moved to a small village. The children were spared, but Kiš’s father was deported to Auschwitz. In his novels, Kiš often wrote about a character modeled on his father, whom he called Eduard Scham. In 1979, he moved to Paris, where his works were translated from Serbian, and gained worldwide recognition. While Kiš’s earlier writings were heavily influenced by the magic realism of Jorge Luis Borges, his later works emphasized a more universalist, humanitarian experience. Kiš was awarded the Yugoslav Ninova Nagrada Prize for best novel in 1972 but later returned it because of political disagreements.