Summary
Meša Selimović: The Fortress (The book is new.) The main character of the novel, Ahmet Šabo, wants to find a bridge to other people, to get out of the fortress, because he knows that hatred separates and destroys us, only love will sustain us, or at least the belief that any kind of understanding between individuals and the community is possible. Guided by this faith and desire, he remains cheerful and morally clean. Most often, Dervish and Tvrđava are spoken of as a pair, almost as if they are parts of the same cycle, sequels. And yet, although we are talking about novels that reflect a similar vision of the world, they are essentially different. Despite everything, Tvrđava is a brighter novel: in Dervish, death is as meaningless as life, while Tvrđava offers meaning in love (the end of the penultimate chapter of Tvrđava seems to be the direct antithesis of the famous ending of Dervish and death: I decided on love. It is less true, and less likely, but it is nobler. And more beautiful: that way everything makes more sense. And death. And life.) and Ahmet Šaba's guiding line of life is what stands out somewhere precisely Meša Selimović: to remain unsullied in a dirty world.
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