The Galley Slave is a tour de force of historical fiction centered on the misadventures of an Everyman of indeterminate origins named Johan Ot, who is part picaresque anti-hero, part Josef K.

Jancar, today the leading writer of contemporary Slovenian prose, was born in Maribor, Slovenia. A former president of the Slovenian PEN Center and a winner of the Preseren Foundation Award, he is currently an editor of the New Review.