Night Council

Against the background of recent events Dževad Karahasan tells the story of a man anxious to explore his origins, and who is confronted with the impending war. Night Council is a forceful novel, in which crime and theological speculation, a love story and radical social criticism are deftly interwoven.

Simon Mihailovic, a Bosnian doctor living in exile in Berlin, returns to his Bosnian home town Foca after 25 years in August 1991. A poisonous mood of violence, fear, fanaticism and nationalist madness prevails. Shortly after he arrives, a woman from an old Bosnian family, and a onetime sweetheart of his, is brutally murdered. Three other people, who were close to him, are killed in mysterious circumstances. The suspicion falls on Simon, the stranger from the West. One evening Enver Pilav, a long lost friend, and now a Sufi monk, appears on his doorstep. Something is not right with him. In the days and nights, they spent dreaming and discussing with one another, a transformation takes place: The deeper Simon delves into his inner mind the more he feels like opening to another world. Then he accompanies Enver down into the Barzakh, the subterranean interim realm, where the souls of those murdered over the last centuries gather to break the chain of violence.