Svetislav Basara was born on the 21st of December 1953 in Bajina Bašta, in Serbia. Postmodern writer and former diplomat (He was ambassador in Cyprus), he is known as a “giant of Serbian literature” (Mediapart). He is the author of about 30 books, novels, essays and short stories, and his writing has been praised for its caustic humour, his intellectual irreverence, and his remarkable staging of the absurd. In his country, Peking by Night, a collection of short stories that came out in 1985, was received by critics with enthusiasm, just like his novel Fama o biciklistima (1988, unpublished in France). He was the laureate of many Serbian literary prizes (twice the prestigious NIN prize). Among his successes in France published by Notabilia, one can count Le miroir fêlé (2007), Guide de Mongolie (2008), Solstice d’Hiver (2014) et Le Cœur de la Terre (2017).