Aleksandar Gatalica is one of Serbia's foremost contemporary authors. He is also a translator (from Ancient Greek), music critic and editor. He has published six novels and as many collections of short stories, and also a guide to Belgrade for Foreigners. He is the editor of pages on world literature (Danas daily), editor of Blic knjiga (literary supplement), editor of Serbian PEN Centre editions, assistant art director of Madlenianum Opera and Theatre, editor in National Broadcast Network Serbia. Presently, Gatalica hold the position of the General manager of Foundation of National Library of Serbia.

'A whirlpool of a book that draws in the reader, moving ambitiously across place, class and profession yet tying all into the dreadful pull of the first global conflict. A war that began in the Balkans now has a fitting literary epitaph from a giant among Balkan writers.' - Tim Butcher,bestselling British writer and author of The Trigger 'This is a novel with a hundred faces, which all together make up a diverging and multi-layered story about World War I. Here, there is no separation between two worlds: the fictional and the real. Borislav Pekic would have added that the Spirit of History and the poetical content of the past is a predominating content of any successful literary work. 'The Great War' belongs to this category of work.' Petar Pijanovic, "Politika" magazine

• 1914 - the Year of the Pathologist: Prologue: Two Revolver Shots13 A Long Hot Summer25 War40 Letters of Life and Death65 First Wartime Christmas73 The Typhus Situation92 1915 - the Year of the Trader The Smell of Snow and Forebodings of Doom99 The Man who Did Everything Twice115 War and the Sexes128 The Father of all Gothic Doctors143 Best Wishes from Hell160 Defence and Ultimate Collapse170 1916 - the Year of the King: The Valley of the Dead187 Far away, to the Ends of the Earth206 Miracle Cures and Other Elixirs223 Delusions as Broad as Russia238 Corporals, Chaplains and Helmsmen256 1917 - the Year of the Tsar: Betrayal, Cowardice and Lies279 T heir Time Has Passed298 Death Wears no Watch320 The Revolution Travels by Train339 1918 - the Year of the Criminologist: The End - Kaput361 The Pandemic369 Silent Liberation379 I am now Dead393 Wishes for the New World401 Epilogue: Dreams Made of Dreams408 The Author413 Translator414