The Great War. Aleksandar Gatalica

      The Great War

      First published in 2014 by

      Istros Books

      London, United Kingdom

      www.istrosbooks.com

      © Aleksandar Gatalica, 2014

      The right of Aleksandar Gatalica to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

      Translation © Will Firth, 2014

      Graphic design: Frontispis.hr

      Cover photograph courtesy of the Imperial War Museum, London (Q 31930)

      Ebook conversion by leeds-ebooks.co.uk

      ISBN: 978-1-908236203

      This edition is supported by the National Library of Serbia and the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia.

      This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

      Acknowledgements

      The author would first and foremost like to thank Petar Pijanović and Professor Dragoljub Živojinović, the first readers of this novel. He is also indebted to the hundreds of eyewitnesses who were his eyes and ears in the Great War: above all John Reed, Princess Cantacuzène and the journalists of wartime Politika, who proved that authors can also write about things they haven’t experienced first-hand as long as they are informed about events by good, reliable witnesses.

      ALEKSANDAR GATALICA

      THE GREAT WAR

      Translated from the Serbian by Will Firth

      

      Contents

      

       1914 – the Year of the Pathologist

       Prologue: Two Revolver Shots

       A Long Hot Summer

       War

       Letters of Life and Death

       First Wartime Christmas

       The Typhus Situation

       1915 – the Year of the Trader

       The Smell of Snow and Forebodings of Doom

       The Man who Did Everything Twice

       War and the Sexes

       The Father of all Gothic Doctors

       Best Wishes from Hell

       Defence and Ultimate Collapse

       1916 – the Year of the King

       The Valley of the Dead

       Far away, to the Ends of the Earth

       Miracle Cures and Other Elixirs

       Delusions as Broad as Russia

       Corporals, Chaplains and Helmsmen

       1917 – the Year of the Tsar

       Betrayal, Cowardice and Lies

       Their Time Has Passed

       Death Wears no Watch

       The Revolution Travels by Train

       1918 – the Year of the Criminologist

       The End – Kaput

       The Pandemic

       Silent Liberation

       I am now Dead

       Wishes for the New World

      Epilogue: Dreams Made of Dreams

       The Author

       The Translator

      The Heroes of this Novel

      (by warring countries)

      Serbia

      DJOKA VELKOVICH, manufacturer of Idealin

      GAVRA CRNO­GOR­CHE­VICH, manufacturer of counterfeit Idealin

      Major TIHOMIR MIYUSHKOVICH

      YANKO and DJURO TANKOSICH, conscripts from Voivodina

      Mrs LIR, a lady from Belgrade

      PERA STANISAVLEVICH