Garden, Ashes is the remarkable account of Andi Scham 's childhood during World War II, as his Jewish family traverses Eastern Europe to escape persecution. As the family moves from house to house, the novel focuses on Andi's relationship with his father; he recounts the endless hours his father poured into t he creation of his all-inclusive third edition of the Bus, Ship, Rail, and Air Travel Guide, to the bizarre sermons he delivered to his befuddled family, to his eventual disappearance and assumed death at Auschwitz. Despite the apocalyptic events fueling t his family's story, Kis's writing emphasizes the specific details of life during this period, constructing a personal account of a future artist growing up under the shadow of the Nazis and in a world capable of containing a person as unique as his father .

One of Serbia's most influential writers, Danilo Kis is the author of several novels and short-story collections, including A Tomb for Boris Davidovich, The Encyclopedia of the Dead, and Hourglass. In 1980 Kis was awarded the Grand Aigle d'Or from the ci ty of Nice. He died in 1989 at the age of 54.

"Let us not mince words here: Danilo Kis's Garden, Ashes is an unmitigated masterpiece, surely not just one of the best books about the Holocaust, but one of the greatest books of the past century."—Aleksandar Hemon

"In Kis's case . . . it is the consistent quality of the local prose that counts. It is how, sentence by sentence, the song is built, and immeasurable meanings meant. It is the rich regalia of his rhetoric that leads us to acknowledge his authori ty. On his page, trappings are not trappings, but sovereignty itself."—William H. Gass, New York Review of Books

"Garden, Ashes will influence the most current trends in the art of the literary avant-garde—so much so that it may even shape the course of the novel."—Le Figaro