The Fortress
Published on 1. September 1999
Book
Hardback
406 pages
978-0-8101-1712-9 (ISBN)
Description
The Fortress is one of the most significant and fascinating novels to come out of the former Yugoslavia. Ahmet Shabo returns home to eighteenth-century Sarajevo from the war in Russia, numbed by the death in battle or suicide of nearly his entire military unit. In time he overcomes the anguish of war, only to find that he has emerged a reflective and contemplative man in a society that does not value, and will not tolerate, the subversive implications of these qualities.
Reviews / Votes
""The Fortress is a chilling, Kafkaesque tale of baffling, inescapable persecution that evokes Camus's The Stranger and Sartre's No Exit."" --Washington Post Book World|""In disturbing echoes of the present day, Ahmet Shabo rehearses issues we live with now, in our apparently distant, transformed world, their somber litany a fitting testament to his creator's prescience."" --Review of Contemporary Fiction
|""One of the most significant novels to come out of the former Yugoslavia. Profound in its evocation of Bosnian history...Selimovic's subtle and complex characterization, his vivid evocation of the political and social framework of a historical moment and its associations with modern Yugoslavian history, and the insight of his moral and philosophical explorations all contribute to the book's dark power.""--Translation Review
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Evanston
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 203 mm
Width: 121 mm
Weight
825 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8101-1712-9 (9780810117129)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Mesa Selimovic (1910-82) is one of the most significant writers to emerge from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Born in Sarajevo, of Muslim descent, he brought to the literature of Yugoslavia an unprecedented psychological subtlety and an existential concern for characters at crucial moments of their lives. His novel Death and the Dervish was published by Northwestern University Press in 1996.
E. D. Goy was a lecturer in Slavonic studies at Cambridge for thirty-five years until his retirement in 1990.
Jasna Levinger was a lecturer in English language and sociolinguistics at the Universities of Sarajevo and Novi Sad. She now lives in Cambridge.
E. D. Goy was a lecturer in Slavonic studies at Cambridge for thirty-five years until his retirement in 1990.
Jasna Levinger was a lecturer in English language and sociolinguistics at the Universities of Sarajevo and Novi Sad. She now lives in Cambridge.
Content
Translators' Foreword
1. The Dniestr Marshes
2. Sadness and Laughter
3. Happiness, Nonetheless
4. Enemy Country
5. Empty Space
6. A Strange Summer
7. A Dead Son
8. The Fear of Isolation
9. A Tale of Children's Flutes
10. A Pure-Hearted Young Man
11. I'll Not Think of Ramiz
12. The Sorrow and the Fury
13. The Rescue
14. The Power of Love
15. Father and Son
16. The Epitaph
17. The Eternal Tracker
18. Death in Venice
19. The Fortress
Glossary and References
1. The Dniestr Marshes
2. Sadness and Laughter
3. Happiness, Nonetheless
4. Enemy Country
5. Empty Space
6. A Strange Summer
7. A Dead Son
8. The Fear of Isolation
9. A Tale of Children's Flutes
10. A Pure-Hearted Young Man
11. I'll Not Think of Ramiz
12. The Sorrow and the Fury
13. The Rescue
14. The Power of Love
15. Father and Son
16. The Epitaph
17. The Eternal Tracker
18. Death in Venice
19. The Fortress
Glossary and References