The World and All That It Holds

'This life-stuffed novel is Aleksandar Hemons masterpiece' - David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas The epic, cross-continental tale of a love so strong it conquers the Great War, revolution, and even death itself. As the Archduke Franz Ferdinand arrives in Sarajevo one June day in 1914, Rafael Pinto is busy crushing herbs and grinding tablets behind the counter at the pharmacy he inherited from his father. Its not quite the life he had expected during his poetry-filled student days in libertine Vienna, but its nothing a dash of laudanum, a summer stroll and idle fantasies cant put in perspective. And then the world explodes. In the trenches in Galicia, fantasies fall flat. Heroism gets a man killed quickly. War devours all that they have known, and the only thing Pinto has to live for are the attentions of Osman, a fellow soldier, a man of action to complement Pintos introspective, poetic soul; a charismatic storyteller and Pintos protector and lover. Together, Pinto and Osman will escape the trenches and find themselves entangled with spies and Bolsheviks. As they travel over mountains and across deserts, from one world to another, all the way to Shanghai, it is Pintos love for Osman that will truly survive.