Much like in his debut novel When the Fogs Lift, which placed him among the leading voices of contemporary Croatian war prose, Josip Mlakić in The Living and the Dead delivers a work of exceptional literary refinement, filled with numerous literary and cinematic allusions. Set in a dark, hopeless, and depressive atmosphere, the novel explores the very essence of war. Through evocative descriptions of the landscape, Mlakić succeeds in immersing readers in the atmosphere of wartime psychosis and death, making them direct witnesses to the events depicted. The final pages of the novel bring a genre shift—from war fiction into horror—adding a metaphysical layer and sending the reader a clear and unambiguous message. The horror element is not achieved through graphic violence or gore, but through the tension inherent in the situations the characters find themselves in. The actions and communication between the protagonists represent individualized attitudes toward death and, ultimately, a struggle against the overwhelming sense of despair.
