The Children of Evil

A naked man, handcuffed to a bed, is screaming. Dressed in black – with welder’s goggles shielding his face – his killer is slowly chopping him to pieces with an axe. Thus begins, with extreme violence, this legal thriller that is by no means confined to the genre. Its author, a judge at the Belgrade Court of Appeal, is well known on the international criminal law scene and a staunch opponent of all forms of judicial populism. And indeed: anyone seeking answers to the dynamics of corruption, nepotism and nationalism that still seem to undermine Serbian civil society will find some unexpected answers within these pages.

Far from a foregone conclusion, however, is the fictional protagonist of the story – based on a true event – the extremely fragile Nikola Bobic, a lawyer plagued by migraines and a host of addictions, who agrees to defend – with virtually no chance of success – the man who will be accused of the brutal murder described in the opening lines. A victim? Or the culprit? A scapegoat?

Nothing is as it seems, of course. The brutal opening sequence is merely the start of a gallery of horrors. A coin, clenched in the fist of the victims—many of whom will subsequently fall—seems to point to a single lead, though one that is difficult to follow. Bobić is the only one who genuinely attempts to seek the truth in a world where there are no longer any good or bad people, but only powers driven by self-preservation and individuals focused on personal gain. And, of course, on forgetting, on repressing. Often full of uncertainties (and possibilities), all the characters we encounter in the plot—whether supporting characters or antagonists—are in fact united only by an absolute inability to come to terms with their own past. We do not fear doing the reader an injustice with a spoiler if we say that the secrets of this story lie in episodes of the extremely violent ethnic war in Yugoslavia in ’92. A small village in Bosnia, perhaps inhabited only by ghosts, where no one has anything left to say because the memories and traumas are too painful, is the key to understanding the extent of a curse, a dark presence that dominates everything here—to which the title seems to allude—and which only Bobicć will dare to challenge. Memory, after all, is rarely shared. We are seeing this first-hand in the days following the death of General Ratko Mladić.

The rest is (beautiful) backdrop. A rainy Belgrade by night, more captivating than ever. A soundtrack – of blues and jazz – that draws the reader in. For those who might become hooked: Bobic’s story has also been turned into a (brilliant) series available to watch on HBO Max.

      

Miodrag Majic
, "The Children of Evil
", Marsilio, 400 pp., 19 euros