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Books Related to The Fortress Mesa Selimovic - ISBN: 0810117134
Well worth reading but difficult to feel sympathy with the main character - Rated
This is well worth reading even if it may be at first a little difficult to get into. Not least, because we in Western Europe know almost nothing about Eastern Europe and much of the novel assumes pre geographical and historical knowledge of the area. That aside, this along with his Death and the Dervish is an excellent read.
Set in Ottoman Bosnia the story surrounds the life of a former soldier who returns to his native Bosnia after the Ottoman - Russian wars and the trials he faces both from his former comrades at the front and the powers that be. One of the main problems with the book however I feel is that the main character Ahmet is just one you fail to sympathise with. Too busy moping around feeling sorry for himself, too busy drinking himself into stupidity why his wife is the one who has to hold things together not only financially but with common sense also.
While reading this book I found a lot of comparison with early classical Russian writers such as Chekov and Tolstoy and (maybe it is the Ottoman connection) with the Turkish writer Yasar Kemal.
An interesting read if a little disappointing after Death and the Dervish but one worth buying.
A must for anyone reading Slavic or Bosnian literature - Rated
One of essential books in Bosnian, Balkan or Slavic literature...Ahmed Shabo returns home to 18th century Sarajevo from the war in Russia. Numbered by the deaths in battle or by suicide of nearly his entire military unit, he is devastated to learn that most of his family has died of disease during his absence. Through the help of a friend and the love of a woman Ahmed overcomes the psychological anguish of war only to find that he as emerged a reflective and contemplative man in a society that does not value and often will not tolerate the subversive implications of these qualities. Some remarks Ahmed makes at a party - about human decency and fairness and the tendency of the powerful to trample over them - lead him into the dark labyrinth of the novel's plot, in which his encounters with love and violence, intrigue, tyranny and intellectual adventure continuosly reshape his destiny and his sense of the meaning of his life. (excerpt from back of book)
