Words Are Something Else

David Albahari is one of the most prominent prose writers to come out of the former Yugoslavia in the last twenty years. His short stories, which developed largely outside the canon of Serbian literature, have influenced a generation of Balkan writers. This collection gathers Albahari's best and most important stories, moving from an early preoccupation with the family and Central European culture to metafictional searches for the roots of his identity.

"David Albahari cooks up a heady stew of cast iron and remembrance in this selection of masterly short fiction. . . . [W]riting as good as Albahari's goes CNN one better--he gives us news that stays news." --Boston Globe

"Each of Albahari's stories is a literary experiment. After reading them, one is left with a lingering effect and a wish to go back and reread the tales in order to ponder further the mystery of the creative process of writing." --World Literature Today

"David Albahari writes in the rich Balkan tradition of urbanity and multiculturalism . . . the stories are less about the particularities of place than about the universal riddles of language . . . playful and good-natured, recalling the metafictions of Robert Coover and Albahari's countryman Danilo Kis." --New York Times Book Review

"A masterly collection . . . accomplished and resonant tales: powerful evidence of the ermergence of yet another important Eastern European writer--and a pleasurable and rewarding surprise for American readers."--Kirkus