The World and All That It Holds


 Contents
 
 Title Page
 Copyright Notice
 Dedication
 Epigraphs
 Map
 Part I
 
 Sarajevo, 1914
 Galicia, 1916
 Part II
 
 Tashkent, 1918
 Tashkent, 1919
 Brich Mulla, 1920
 Ferghana Valley, 1921
 Part III
 
 Korla, 1922
 Taklamakan Desert, 1926
 Part IV
 
 Shanghai, 1932
 Shanghai, 1937
 Shanghai, 1949
 Epilogue
 
 Jerusalem, 2001
 Acknowledgments
 Also by Aleksandar Hemon
 A Note About the Author
 Newsletter Sign-up
 Copyright
 
 
 
 Guide
 
 Cover
 Title Page
 Dedication
 Part I
 SARAJEVO, 1914
 Acknowledgments
 Contents
 Copyright
 
 
 
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 Begin Reading
 Table of Contents
 A Note About the Author
 Copyright Page
 
 
 
 The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you for your personal use only. You may not make this e-book publicly available in any way. Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the author’s copyright, please notify the publisher at: us.macmillanusa.com/piracy.
 
 
 For my daughters, Ella, Isabel (R.I.P.), and Esther
 For refugees of the world
 
 
 Three kinds of dreams are fulfilled: a morning dream, a dream that a friend has about one, and a dream that is interpreted in the midst of a dream. Some say: Also, a dream that is repeated.
 —BABYLONIAN TALMUD, Tractate Berakhot
 If he is mine, why is he with others?
 Since he’s not here, to what “there” did he go?
 —JALĀL AL-DĪN RŪMĪ, “Where Did the Handsome Beloved Go?”
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 PART I
 
 
 
 
 
 
 SARAJEVO, 1914
 
 THE HOLY ONE kept creating worlds and destroying them, creating worlds and destroying them, and then, just before giving up, He finally came up with this one. And it could be much worse, this world and all that it holds, as I certainly know how to get my hands on some interesting stuff around here. Let’s see: LAPIS INFERNALIS, LAUDANUM, next to it, LAVENDER.
 Pinto took the laudanum off the shelf, knocking over the lavender tin, which miraculously did not break open when it hit the floor. He released a drop of laudanum onto a sugar lump, watched the brown stain bloom, then placed it in his mouth. While the sugar and bitterness dissolved on his tongue, he picked up the lavender, dipped his nose into the tin, and inhaled—vast Mediterranean flower fields stretched inside him, the blue sea lapping at his soul, a turquoise sky and swallows floating above it all, the laudanum sailing on his blood all the way to his mind, and then beyond. To all the things created at twilight on the Šabat eve, the Lord wisely added laudanum, just to help make everything more beautiful and bearable.
 Now was Rafael Pinto much better prepared for the Archduke Franz Ferdinand von Österreich-Este, Heir Apparent to the Habsburg Empire and Inspector General of the Imperial Armed Forces, and for the whole spectacle he was bringing to Sarajevo just to see how we live here. We live rather well, Your Highness, I must say, provided there is enough laudanum and lavender on hand, thank You very much for Your kind concern. And since this is an enterprise of providing remedy for the body as much as for the soul, we’re sure to have plenty of whatever we might need, long live the Emperor, the Lord be praised, and bless You too.
 After a drab, rainy week, the morning was sunny and the light broke through the windows as never before, rearranging the checkered floor into unprecedented patterns. The sugar was now completely dissolved but the bitterness lingered, tickling his tongue. God wrapped Himself in white garments, and the radiance of His majesty illuminated the world, and right here on the floor of the Apotheke Pinto we can now behold a little patch of one of those very garments. There might be a poem for me