Seven Terrors

Nominated for the DUBLIN IMPAC PRIZE 2014 & the Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation Awards 2013, University of California, Riverside

Gothic ghost story set in post-war Bosnia

After nine months of self-imposed isolation following his wife's departure, the hero of Seven Terrors finally decides to face his loneliness and join the world once more. However, when the daughter of his old friend Alex appears in his flat one morning with the news that her father has disappeared, he realises that his life is again about to change. As the two search for clues in Alex's war diary, unearthed in a library in Sweden, they come upon tales of unspeakable horror and mystery: meetings with ghosts, a town under siege, demonic brothers who ride on the wings of war, and many more things so dangerous – and so precious – that they can only be discussed by the dead.

As investigation into Alex's disappearance continues, readers will be drawn further and further into a surreal world where rationality has vanished, evil spreads like a virus and not even love can offer an escape. While Charon, Hades' mythical ferryman, can be found behind the wheel of a taxi and dead horses are seen flying across the sky, cracks begin to erode reality and people start to go missing. Here, amidst such chaos, our hero endeavours to cling to his sanity, doing his best to solve the riddle of Alex's disappearance while attempting to save his own soul and bring love back into his life.

Startling, unusual and intense, Seven Terrors may well be considered the perfect post-war nightmare.

"It's quite unlike anything I've read before, but it has all the consistency and force of something major and assured. (Remarkably, this is the author's first novel.) That it has room for humour is testament to Avdić's confidence" Nick Lezard

This book is also available as a eBook. Buy it from Amazon here.