Siege of the Church of the Holy Savior

Thirteenth century. The Bulgarians and Cumans are advancing on the Monastery of the Holy Savior. With their terrifying attributes, grimness, and bloodthirstiness, they stand alongside any "army of darkness" from contemporary fantasy. They have ominous shadows, and their leader Shishman... wears a lynx hat that comes to life and attacks the guilty at its master's command. Through the power of the prayers of all the people hiding in the monastery from the forces of evil, the church has risen above the ground... The narrative stretches across the entire history of Europe: the treachery of the legendary blind man, the Venetian doge Dandolo, the capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders, the fate of two Serbian kings, Dragutin and Milutin. The novel even has its own Woland - a man with a dried pumpkin from which darkness spills forth. For lovers of magical realism, this novel will take its rightful place alongside "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "The Master and Margarita." Based on a real event, it reads like historical fantasy and a philosophical novel.