BLACK BLOSSOM

First published in Yugoslavia in 1993, Knezevic's novel takes the form of a postmodern sword-and-sorcery adventure to comment insightfully on the nature of heroism and aggression. Its nameless narrator, a persecuted young Serb, bargains with a captive wizard to obtain the strength he needs to defend himself. Once empowered, he embarks on a quest to rid his land of an avenging warrior-sorcerer who was conjured by the victims of a ghastly war crime committed generations before. The nobility of his mission notwithstanding, the narrator is not a paragon of heroic virtue, and by the time of his showdown, his vindictiveness has made him seem little better than the nemesis he fights. The allegorical intent of the story becomes clear only gradually, insofar as Knezevic deliberately jumbles the order of his narrative, alternating early and later chapters in such a way that events of past and present are constantly mirroring and blending indistinguishably with one another. The resulting portrait of a world where crimes of the past repeat themselves and violence begets even more violence makes for a timeless parable that readers will find speaks to the contemporary political reality of the author's country, as well as to the rest of the world. (Feb.)