1914-1918. The war. When the myths are vanished, what remains for those who had the chance to get out alive ? But first, where was it, the life, in these endless atrocities ? Maybe the knocked out survivors found it in the heart of horror and absurdity ?

Charnoïevich, Serb in the Austro-hungarian army, is engaged against the Serbo-Russian troups in Galicia. Absurd situation since he's forced to fight against those he feels the closest to, and that the army he belongs to, will finally wins this battle, and yet loose the war.

He wanders in the battle fields and the hospitals, in the prisonner camps and his birth place, in the souvenirs of his past life. He writes a diary, a poor compass, an uncertain help for his wanderings in time and space, last possibility to give them a sense. Wounded in his body and in his mind, desperate and resigned, he's unable of any emotion and conscious of the uselessness of any effort.

When the diary was published in 1921, it was a considerable event in the history of Serbian literature. The book, indeed, broke completely with the traditional romanesque production. First, by the form. A chronicle ? A Poem ? A novel ? The diary has all those different genres, without being only one – but mostly by the tone. This tone, te first authenticity of Tsernianski, is made by the succession of short and dry annotations, and lyric developments, subtle and personal images, strange ideas, unfinished reflections.

Buy online : Amazon.fr (French translation)