World and All that it Holds

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 estimable 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 from the high shelf, a summer stroll, and idle fantasies about passersby 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; Pintos protector and lover.

Together, Pinto and Osman will escape the trenches, survive near-certain death, tangle with spies and Bolsheviks. Over mountains and across deserts, from one world to another, all the way to Shanghai, it is Pintos love for Osmanwith the occasional opiatic interludethat keeps him going.

Hardcover, Jan 24th 2023