In the 1960s Serbian fiction writers started to modernize their writing and to follow the modern trends in European literature. A new brand of Yugoslav aestheticism emerged in which literature became its own theme. Attempts to go beyond this aestheticism were many. One of the few writers successful in this difficult test was Dragoslav Mihailovic, now recognized as one of the most accomplished authors of postwar Serbian fiction.

Mihailovic was born on 17 November 1930 in Cuprija, a small provincial town southeast of Belgrade. His mother, Ljubica Todorovic, a seamstress, died when Dragoslav was two years old. His father, Branko, a small merchant and tavern owner, died in 1948, leaving his teenage son an orphan. Mihailovic finished the last two years of high school supported by the town municipality. In the fall of 1949 he entered the University of Belgrade, studying in the Department of Yugoslav Literature and Serbo-Croatian Language. The year...