Book Review: "The World and All That It Holds" by Aleksandar Hemon

The Holy One kept creating worlds and destroying them, creating worlds and destroying them, and then, just before giving up, He finally came up with this one. And it could be much worse, this world and all that it holds.

- The World and All That It Holds by Aleksander Hemon

I bought this book ages ago and to be honest, it got lost amongst my 'to be read' pile and was not seen since until today. I initially bought it because David Mitchell of one of my favourite books ever, Cloud Atlas, had said it was something really good to read and so, I would give it a go. Honestly, I was not disappointed and I found it to be quite emotionally overwhelming. It's one of those books where reality is at odds with what people really want and, set amongst the backdrop of World War One, it continues its lasting effect long afterwards just like the war did.

Pinto is in Sarajevo in 1914 and awaits, like many, the arrival of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Working at a failing apothecary was not his intention but strange fantasies and laudunum gets him through each day whilst the whole place seems to smell of levender (no matter how rare the flower in that part of Bosnia). When the Archduke is shot dead along with his wife, Pinto seems to think that he can remember the blood spilling from the Archduke's mouth and, before he knows it, he's on a battlefield in Galicia in 1916 with another soldier whom he has fallen in love with named Osman. A frightening and yet romantic prospect, the mixture of love and the imagery of graphic violence from war gives us a reality so terrifyingly beautiful that it could only be influenced by the Romantic Era itself.

As the book goes on, we meet some new and shady characters and several times, Osman and Pinto are close to death as they navigate the battlefields of European cities with trepidation. From having a gun held to their heads, to typhoid fever to rotting flesh and horrific violence, there are many things in this book that give us the impression that these two especially are always on the absolute brink between life and death. A terrifying love story that breathes tension into every single line. There are breathtaking lines in this book that the author works in with such talent and beauty that you cannot help but pull yourself away for a few moments just to cherish the lines on the page.

The author not only writes singular lines brilliantly, but the backdrops of major events in modern European history seem to be one of the highlights of the storytelling in this book. First of all, we have that backdrop of the assassination of the Archduke which throws everything wide open to possibility. Once the Archduke is assassinated, we have the entirety of Europe to see over, different cities marking different memories on the journey. We also have event such as the Russian Revolution where we get introduced to Russian characters who have less of a problem with Osman and Pinto's lifestyle choices than there other, more conservative, counterparts. It becomes a whirlwind of European history as the world changes around these two characters, the author writes in these different descriptions to show us the amount that the world actually holds. It, as are all the possibilities in this book, is endless as it is expansive.

Is this a romance story? No. It is a story of romance but does not constitute as a 'romantic' novel. Instead I believe that this would make more sense to call this a war novel or even a saga. Romance is one of the proponents of the novel that keeps the reader engaged with the characters and their stories, it keeps us hanging on to the possibilities of those people at those moments and how they are reflective of a bigger, changing picture in Europe. It is one of the biggest achievements of the book and I truly believe that this is a new feat of modern fiction we are experiencing.

It lends itself to books like Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell and The Romantic by William Boyd as it spans times and ages, people and places, telling the story of love and loss, humanity and depravation. It is a fantastic new-age novel and I hope we see more of it.