Nazi-set novel turns spotlight on Serbian city of Nis (Feature)

By Ksenija Prodanovic Mar 5, 2010, 2:08 GMT

Belgrade - 'On the eve of World War Two, Adolf Hitler was given a map of area important to the Nazis' Aryan legacy. One of the areas was Serbia and its southern city of Nis, the birthplace of the Roman emperor Constantine.'

Thus begins the best-selling novel Constatine's Crossroads by young Serbian author Dejan Stojiljkovic. The prize-winning book has drawn unaccustomed attention to the rich cultural and literary life

outside the capital of Belgrade.

Nis, or Naissus, is the third-largest city in Serbia, one of the oldest cities in the Balkans and the birthplace of the first Christian Roman Emperor - Constantine the Great.

At the beginning of World War II, the city was occupied by German troops, as it was situated on an important crossroads between Asia Minor and Europe.

The first Nazi concentration camp in then Yugoslavia was located near Nis in 1941, and the city was heavily bombed by the Allies in 1944, around the same time that the action in Constantine's Crossroads occurs.

The novel's action revolves around an SS officer, Heinrich Kahn, who finds Constantine's sword in tunnels under the ancient Roman Mediana palace.

The sword is reputed to bestow great power on its holder. Meanwhile, Nis is hit by a series of gruesome murders, and rumours circulate that a vampire is on the prowl, killing German soldiers.

The book has been a critical and commercial success.

'As someone born in Nis, I loved it,' one bookshop owner told the German Press Agency, dpa. 'I remember my grandfather telling me about the Nazis and the secret underground tunnels in Nis and Mediana and the restaurants he went to when he was a young boy. And I found all that in this book.'

Speaking to dpa, Stojiljkovic said he began working on the story seven years ago, before the vampire book Twilight and the television show True Blood became popular.

'My friend and I came up with the idea of making a collection of vampire stories. That collection was never finished, but I developed my story into a novel, conveniently weaving in urban legends about Nis's underground tunnels and stories from the pre-war press about vampires in Nis,' he said.

Most of the characters in the book are based on real people, as are the settings - the taverns in which they sit and and the streets on which they walk. Stojiljkovic did a lot of research about Nis and the German officers living in the city at the time.

'I used archival documents and old newspapers. I also talked with people who remember that time - World War II and the occupation - and I have talked with the descendants of some well-known citizens of Nis,' he said.

Stojiljkovic said all of the officers in the book except Kahn are historical figures. For the novel's prologue, he drew on a huge amount of material about Hitler, from a psychological profile to information about his attitude toward Serbia and Serbs.

The research apparently paid off. A critic for the newspaper Politika praised the novel's artful blending of fact and fiction.

'By mixing history and the occult, tragedy and trivial, in short - the world of ideas with the rhythm and inertia of life in deranged times - the author created a novel with a flowing narrative that is dynamic, suggestive and effective,' wrote Mileta Acimovic Ivkov.

Stojiljkovic's novel won the Milos Crnjanski prize in 2009, which is given every two years to the best first book, and was shortlisted for the prestigious NIN award. Although it did not win the NIN prize, the novel, published in mid-2009, has been hugely popular and is now its fifth printing.

Publishers from Germany, France and Britain are planning translations of the book, and the movie rights have already been sold.

The book, together with a coming historical commemoration, is raising hopes of a 'decentralization' of Serbian culture.

Belgrade, the capital and the largest city in Serbia, has always been the hub of political and cultural activities in Serbia - which, much to the chagrin of some, has led to the notion that Serbia and Belgrade are synonymous.

In 2013, Nis hosts a celebration of the anniversary of the Edict of Milan, signed by Constantine signed in 313, which proclaimed religious toleration in the Roman Empire.

The appearance of Stojiljkovic and other young or provincial authors like him on the Serbian cultural scene has proved that there is a cultural centre outside the capital. Laguna, a publishing house in Serbia, has recently published many books by up-and-coming writers like Stojiljkovic that have proved surprisingly popular.

Although Constantine's Crossroads has drawn attention to Nis's rich historical legacy, Stojiljkovic doubts it will do much to improve the economic situation in Nis or southern Serbia, the country's poorest region.

'I would love for that to happen, but books have no power to change politicians' decisions,' he said.