Bosnia and Herzegovina / All works
Novel
Death and the Dervish
Derviš i smrt
Meša Selimović · 1966
Synopsis
In Ottoman Bosnia, in the eighteenth century it seems, Sheikh Ahmed Nurudin, aged forty, heads a tekke of Mevlevi dervishes and leads a peaceful and respected life. The arrest of his brother Harun, then the meeting with a fugitive, Ishak, whom he hides for a night, shake his certainties. At first convinced that the authorities are just, he tries to find out what his brother is accused of, comes up against the kadi and gradually enters into conflict with the authorities. He himself tells, in a long confession, what tore him from his retreat.
Context
Written from 1962 to 1966 and quickly famous in Yugoslavia, the book received the Njegoš, Ivan Goran Kovačić and NIN prizes. Its main theme is pusillanimity, the diminished soul, and the most widespread reading sees in it an Ottoman setting used to criticise socialist Yugoslavia; the author draws on the Koran and pushes first-person narration to virtuosity. Episodes from his own life inspired it. It was meant to open a trilogy, and a second novel of 1970 forms its counterpart.
Who it is for
For those who like novels of meditation, slow and inward, in which a man of faith questions power and his own cowardice.
Prizes and reception
Crowned with the major Yugoslav prizes, it is held to be the summit of its author's work; Kirkus judged it worthy of Andrić.
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