Miodrag Pavlovic was born in Novi Sad in 1928, but his parents moved to Belgrade the following year. He grew up in the Serbian capital, was educated there, and spent the war years of 1941-1945 under the German occupation that was followed by civil war and the establishment of Josip Broz Tito's communist regime. In the year 1948, which marked Tito's break with Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union and the beginnings of Yugoslavia's independence from the Eastern bloc, Pavlovic was twenty years old and beginning a course of medical studies; he completed his medical training and graduated in 1954. He then practiced as a doctor for several years before deciding to devote himself full time to a literary career. During his studies he had become fluent in the principal European languages, literatures, and philosophy. He began writing poetry when he was a student, and, although he has written short stories...