Biography

Born in 1967, Slobodan Despot lives in French-speaking Switzerland where he is editor and essay writer.

“There are countries where the buses live longer than the borders.
The succession of crises that had struck Yugoslavia had removed, from this humble servant of line 67, any hope of relieving. The metal elephant tenderized by the bodies sweat, humanized by the usury, ends up exhaling its heart in a sinister squealing, half way of the highway connecting the new cities of the plain to the historical city stretched on its rock. The passengers, twice more numerous than the vehicle could accommodate, took note without irritation. The faces, hitherto absent and fixed as in an elevator, slackened, and the bunch of pendular was transformed suddenly into a joyful family meeting. They cursed a little against the urban transport, the United Nations, the government or the destiny, and then they went down to lean with the slides of the highway and to smoke while waiting for the breakdown truck.”

“In this quirky hive-movie, told with a cold humour and a salutary distance which return all the parties back to back, Slobodan Despot shows a impeccable father, sovereign, who distributes his honey and his wisdom, that everyone has desire for helping. While the son, with his blinkers, appears to be paranoid, useless, yellow belly and violent. The story, however, will be completed in a honey end. With this first novel nourished by its own personal history (the author, born in 1967, himself of Serb origin, lives in Switzerland), Despot makes an eccentric and promising entry in literature. ”

(Jean-Claude Perrier, Books Hebdo n°976, November 29th, 2013)