Death and the Dervish

Meša Selimović
4.51
10,742 ratings 567 reviews
Death and the Dervish is an acclaimed novel by Bosnian writer Mesa Selimovic. It recounts the story of Sheikh Nuruddin, a dervish residing in an Islamic monastery in Sarajevo in the eighteenth century during the Ottoman Turk hegemony over the Balkans. When his brother is arrested, he must descend into the Kafkaesque world of the Ottoman authorities in his search to discover what happened to him. He narrates his story in the form of an elaborate suicide note, regularly misquoting the Koran. In time, he begins to question his relations with society as a whole and, eventually, his life choices in general. Hugely successful when published in the 1960s, Death and the Dervish is an enduring classic that was made into a feature length film in 1974.
Genres: FictionClassicsHistorical FictionLiteraturePhilosophyNovels20th CenturyHistoricalReligionSerbian Literature
473 Pages

Community Reviews:

5 star
7134 (66%)
4 star
2384 (22%)
3 star
890 (8%)
2 star
238 (2%)
1 star
96 (1%)

Readers also enjoyed

Other books by Meša Selimović

Lists with this book

The Bridge on the Drina
Death and the Dervish
Prokleta avlija
Best South Slavic Literature
363 books303 voters
The Hunger Games
Pride and Prejudice
To Kill a Mockingbird
Best Books Ever
74242 books275052 voters
The Master and Margarita
Crime and Punishment
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Crash Course in Slavic Literature
443 books230 voters
The Bridge on the Drina
The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon
The Balkans
269 books197 voters