A group of linked stories that memorialize Danilo Kis's early years in a Yugoslavian village. The 19 pieces cover his crucial first bereavements and humiliations, striking various tones - from pastorals to exercises in humour.

"The Book of Blam," Aleksandar Ti ma s extended kaddish . . . his] masterpiece (Kirkus Reviews), is a modern-day retelling of the book of Job. The war is over. Miroslav Blam walks along the former Jew Street, and he remembers. He remembers Aaron Grun, the hunchbacked watchmaker; and Eduard Fiker, a lamp merchant; and Jakob Mentele, a stove fitter; and Arthur Spitzer, a grocer, who played amateur soccer and had non-Jewish friends; and Sandor Vertes, a lawyer who was a Communist. All dead. As are his younger sister and his best friend, a Serb, both of whom joined the resistance movement; and...