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The Great War is a novel that comprehensively and passionately narrates a number of stories covering the duration of World War One, starting with the year 1914 - the year that truly marked the beginning of the 20th century. Following the destinies of over seventy characters, on all warring sides, Gatalica depicts the experiences of winners and losers, generals and opera singers, soldiers and spies; including the British spy, Oswald Rayner, the Russian mystic Rasputin, and Field Marshal Boroievich von Boina of the Austro-Hungarian army. The stories themselves are various but equally important: here we find joyful as well as tragic destinies, along with examples of exceptional heroism, which collectively manage to grasp the atmosphere of the entire epoch. Yet The Great War never becomes a chronicle, or a typical historical novel; above all it is a work of art that uses historic events as means to tell many fantastic stories, with unbelievable and unthinkable convolutions. It is commendable in its breadth, its vision and its relevance to modern history.
Aleksandar Gatalica is a prolific author, editor and translator (from ancient Greek). His prose work has won him just about every literary award in modern Serbia, and he has published 11 titles. His distinguished professional career has seen him editor of pages on world literature for Serbian newspapers, as well as Serbian PEN Centre editions and the National Broadcast Network. Presently, Gatalica holds the position of the General Manager of the Foundation of the Serbian National Library.
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About the author
Aleksandar Gatalica has published five novels, including
The Lines of Life, winner of the Milos Crnjanski Award, and
The Invisible, winner of Stevan Sremac Award. He has also published five story cycles, including
Mimicries and
Century. Gatalica has published translations of Aeschylus'
Prometheus Bound; Sophocle's
Oedipus the King and
Oedipus at Colonus; and Euripides'
Alcestis,
Iphigenia at Aulis, and
The Bacchae. Gatalica is also active as a music critic and writer. As a music writer he has published six books, including
Rubinstein Versus Horowitz and
The Golden Age of Pianism.
Summary
One of the very few novels about WWI to have reached the UK market from the Eastern Front. Winner of every literary prize in Serbia upon its publication, The Great War is author Aleksandar Gatalica's opum magnus; following the lives and deaths of spies, singers and soldiers from all warring sides, as each is drawn into this world-changing conflict
