Svetislav Basara's short fiction plays wild games with time and space while nonetheless keeping one foot grounded at all times in the real-life concerns of a young writer during the late communist and postcommunist eras in the former Yugoslavia. Dealing with civil war and other matters of life and death, Basara's stories remain stubbornly eccentric, retaining every quirk, kink, and convolution made famous in his celebrated English-language debut novel, Chinese Letter.

Svetislav Basara is one of the major figures of contemporary Serbian literature and is the author of over two dozen novels and short story collections. In 2006 he received the NIN Award, and he served as the Serbian Ambassador to Cyprus from 2001 to 2005.