???? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

A heartbreaking historical novel: The World and All That It Holds, Aleksandar Hemon’s latest novel, is a massive undertaking that took him 12 years to complete. The story is an epic tale of love, war, and displacement set in the first half of the 20th century. It follows Rafael Pinto, a Bosnian-Jewish pharmacist who returns to Sarajevo in 1914 after studying in Vienna, and witnesses the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which sparks WWI. Pinto joins the Austro-Hungarian army, falls in love, survives cholera and the trenches, and ends up in a Russian-run prisoner of war camp in Tashkent. After being liberated in 1919, Pinto enjoys a brief period of romantic bliss before becoming entangled in the chaos of the Bolshevik revolution. The couple eventually splits up, and Pinto sets out as a refugee across mountains and deserts to find a safe haven for himself and his adopted daughter, with only his memories of happier times and the occasional opioid to keep him going.