The World and All That It Holds

“The world was ending, and he was in love.”

Pinto lives through the Sarajevo assassination but barely notices the politics. He is too busy worrying about his pharmacy and his local crushes. It shows how history usually happens while we are looking at something else.

“There is no world without you.”

War turns every familiar street into a place that wants to kill you. Pinto and Osman survive because they find a way to belong to each other instead of a country. Love becomes their only map.

The story follows them from Sarajevo to the trenches of Galicia and then to Shanghai. It made me realize that home isn't a building. It is the person who remembers your name when everyone else is dead.

Osman tells stories to keep their spirits alive in the dirt. Sometimes the lies we tell each other are more helpful than the truth. They keep the heart beating when the body wants to quit.