Seven Terrors is a weird, remarkable, gripping Bosnian horrorshow of a novel.
“Whoever
ends up reading this text will not be my choice, as I have no say in
the matter. Maybe that's a good thing, because I've never managed to
choose the best option in my life.” So the unnamed narrator begins his
tale. And what a tale it is.
It's March 7, 2005, and we're in an
unnamed city in Bosnia covered in snow — perhaps Sarajevo, Tuzla, or
even Zenica, the hometown of author Selvedin Avdić.
I'll give the
narrator a good Bosnian name – Luka. Anyway, Luka tells us he has spent
the past nine months and three days alone in his apartment, mostly
huddled under the covers in his bed, ever since his wife walked out on
him. How long has Luka been married? At one point, he says five years,
and at another, he says it's ten years. Is this a sign of depression?
Could be. But today is an important day for Luka – he's made the
decision to return to life.
Selvedin Avdić packs much into the
first several pages, including Luka reading a newspaper article
reporting 363 mass graves with 13,915 victims found since 1995. Indeed,
memories of the gruesome, horrific, and tragic 1992-1995 war in Bosnia
act as a noxious, yellowish film coating each scene in the unfolding
drama. And, as it turns out, Luka has a definite reason to continue his
return to life: shortly after his initial decision, he's agreed to help a
young woman by the name of Mirna find her father.
In his Forward to this istrosbooks
edition of the author's debut novel, Nicholas Lezard writes, “this is a
book in which two worlds are often in contrast, if not conflict: the
living and the dead, the time before a woman leaves a man and after, the
pre- and post-war world, the spirit and human worlds, madness and
sanity, dreaming and reality, Muslim and Christian, Muslim and atheist.”
Seven Terrors
is sheer storytelling magic, a tale covering many aspects and levels of
life, death, myth, legend, the supernatural, history, and existential
crisis. To provide a glimpse of what readers will encounter, I'll shift
to a Seven Terrors info bite reel, a batch of quick hits that, I hope, will serve as added motivation to give Selvedin Avdić's fine novel a go.
Mirna
– Recently returned from Sweden, Luka describes this young lady as
having short black hair, black eyes with balls of light in the center,
and a sincere, warm smile that made her a beautiful woman. Mirna tells
Luka her father was looking for ghosts. She then hands him a notebook
her father wrote back in 1993, during the war years.
Aleska -
Mirna's father, a former radio journalist and old friend of Luka's, a
man we get to know from his notebook (included in its entirety) and a
man gone missing since 1993. Aleska writes of his time down in the
mines, his seeing thousands of rats, hearing the stamping of horses
hooves coming from the darkness (blind horses used for hauling coal),
and beholding a ghostly djinn by the name of Peckman.
Menacing
Vision - “In the doorway stood a man with big, blood-shot eyes: the
biggest eyes I have ever seen in my life.” So Luka reports. But, wait -
Aleska also writes of visits from this man with huge, blood-shot eyes.
What is Luka to make of this mystery? Whatever he surmises, Luka has
plenty to work with since he tells Mirna directly he believes not only
in ghosts but vampires, werewolves, apparitions, fairies, dwarfs,
angels, dragons, and a host of other supernatural beings, even the whole
of Jorge Luis Borges' fantastic zoo.
Pegasus Brothers – We're given
the backstory story of Albin and Aldin, a sinister yarn, to be sure.
“The police turn a blind eye to their reign of terror, because the
Pegasus control the underground world too.” Luka pays special attention
to the brothers, especially since they could be key in locating Aleska.
Also, their connection with the city's Music School, the site where
torture has been carried out. For Luka, torturing prisoners brings back
memories of his school trip when he was twelve, visiting a WWII
concentration camp where he watched a documentary filled with horrific
scenes of brutality and pits full of massacred bodies.
Vogue –
Amid the ongoing nightmare in Bosnia, there's the music of the Rolling
Stones and the glitz of the American entertainment and fashion industry,
with a particular focus on Vogue magazine's Anna Wintour. Recall
that Luka's wife walked out on him. The connection between this
traumatic event for Luka and the posturing and strutting of repulsive
Anna Wintour counts as one of the more intriguing parts of the novel.
Endnotes
& Footnotes - Selvedin Avdić includes extensive Endnotes and
Footnotes at the back. There's even a lengthy entry detailing Anna
Wintour's tyranny as editor of Vogue, which concludes with the scathing observation, “And the survival of Vogue
must not be compromised, because only it can offer its followers the
hope that with the help of careful combinations of objects of clothing
can they find in themselves the strength to feel superior to others.”
Seven Terrors – The terrors, seven in number, are listed. Here's Number 7, Fear of loneliness and darkness - Better to write and describe it like this – fear of loneliness or darkness. It's all the same, they both devour.
Writing That's Clear and Precise – A special call-out to translator Coral Petkovich. I'll conclude with three direct quotes:
“Aleksa's
book of ghosts was like a mirror: I seemed to recognize myself in it
and that agitated me greatly. I felt the same fears as Aleska, the same
longing, the same emptiness, loneliness, depression...”
“I
should have been grateful to him for the final realization that I can
control absolutely nothing. Neither around me or inside me.”
“All that was left was the firm knowledge that in this world everything, absolutely everything, is completely meaningless.”
Bosnian author Selvedin Avdić, born 1969
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