As 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. It’s not quite the life he had expected during his poetry-filled student days in libertine Vienna, but it’s nothing a dash of laudanum from the high shelf, a summer stroll, and idle fantasies about passersby can’t 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 Pinto’s introspective, poetic soul; a charismatic storyteller; Pinto’s 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 Pinto’s love for Osman—with the occasional opiatic interlude—that keeps him going.
As 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. It’s not quite the life he had expected during his poetry-filled student days in libertine Vienna, but it’s nothing a dash of laudanum from the high shelf, a summer stroll, and idle fantasies about passersby can’t 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 Pinto’s introspective, poetic soul; a charismatic storyteller; Pinto’s 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 Pinto’s love for Osman—with the occasional opiatic interlude—that keeps him going.
The World and All That It Holds: A Novel
352
The World and All That It Holds: A Novel
352Hardcover
Related collections and offers
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780374287702 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
| Publication date: | 01/24/2023 |
| Pages: | 352 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.30(d) |
Customer Reviews
Explore More Items
An uncertain near-future. A story of new boundaries drawn between people daily. A
“Maggie O’Farrell is a hugely gifted, sympathetic, and ambitious writer, and This Must Be the Place deserves to be her breakout book.”
—Richard Russo
A dazzling
The author of Hamnet—New York Times best seller and National Book Critics Circle Award winner—brings
This is the tale of two sisters . . .
who had no
‘At the very beginning of the twentieth century, Zola said,
Named a best book of 2020 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, The Guardian, and many more
With The Mirror & the Light, Hilary Mantel brings to
England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from
With a vivid imagining by award-winnning author Hilary Mantel and an illuminating essay by noted scholar Xavier Salomon, this first volume in the new Frick Diptych Series brings to life one of the
A NEW YORKER “ESSENTIAL READ”
A NATIONAL BESTSELLER
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, THE NEW