Pinto, the son of a Jewish apothecary in Sarajevo, was made for gentler times. He’s a dreamer. He seeks love and pleasant sensations and ease. He doesn’t know it but, when we first meet him in Aleksandar Hemon’s shattering novel The World and All That It Holds, his world is about to vanish into chaos and bloodshed. On the day that the novel begins, Pinto opens the family shop, flirts with a Viennese military officer, and wanders into a curbside seat for the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Pinto is almost instantly drafted into a Bosnian regiment of the doomed Austro-Hungarian army. We know that Pinto is headed into one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history, so it’s kind of funny that he meets the love of his life in the middle of a warzone.
The first half of The World and All That It Holds follows Pinto and Osman as they are tossed from trench to forest and back to trench as armies fight over patches of Eastern Europe. Osman is one of those supremely competent people who you would want on your side in any kind of fight or crisis. He can get along with anyone, fix anything, and fight anyone the Russians throw at them. He and dreamy Pinto instantly connect. Pinto loves Osman’s gift for storytelling and Pinto arouses Osman’s protective instincts. They know full well that they have to hide their love from the other members of the regiment but there is enough time in between fighting for them to fall deeply in love. After the war, they tell each other, they’ll go back to Sarajevo and spend the rest of their lives together.
We know, however, that Pinto and Osman’s dream will have to remain a dream. A couple of years into the war, the pair are captured by the now-Soviet army and are shipped to Central Asia. After several near-death experiences, the two actually do manage to have a little more time and peace together before history interferes again. I don’t want to give away too much of what happens after Pinto and Osman are sent to Central Asia because a large part of the tension in this book comes from not knowing, first, what new disaster is going to strike, and, second, not knowing if either Pinto or Osman fail to survive that disaster.
Hemon really knows how to play the emotions. Over the course of this novel, there are some stunning highs; sweet, lazy afternoons of love; harrowing terror; inexpressible sorrow; incredible endurance and courage; despair; and heavy doses of reality. Hemon blends those doses of reality with Pinto’s day-dreaming about the sacrifice of Isaac, stories about heroes and vila, opium hallucinations and withdrawal, and so much more. There is just so much in this novel.
I strongly recommend this odyssey of historical fiction. It is one of the most thoughtful, beautiful, and heartbreaking books I’ve read in years. Readers who loved Anthony Marra’s A Constellation of Vital Phenomena will really enjoy The World and All That It Holds.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.