In the desert, blood is less precious than water.

The Corinthian Column is not a historical novel, although it is inspired by history. It is a fantasy novel. In this sense, it corresponds to the meaning that literary criticism gives to the word novel. This frees it from historical fidelity, but not from the truth of man and the world, the authentic man and the authentic world.

The narrative fantasy structure draws from the historical substance of the years 1941-1944 in Slovenia. In the novel, the author deals with a topic that has been consistently avoided by both the left and the right: the role of Slovenian Christian socialism during the war. This is also its first: the novel is the first to address the position, life and dilemmas of Christian socialists during the war, thus setting a milestone in the Slovenian historical novel of the semi-past history.

The hero of the novel is a student of classical philology, a socialist by conviction and a fervent Christian, Stanko Kamnikar. He becomes enthusiastic about the rebellion, which he then pays for with deportation to Gonars and Novara, from which he escapes to Switzerland after the capitulation. Still active in his political choices, he returns to Slovenia from Switzerland in 1944 with the utopian goal of bringing together, if not fraternizing, two mortally conflicting sides – partisans and home guards.
With his former classmate, Home Guard officer Rok Lipovar, he plans a meeting of the two delegations. In his boundless patriotism, however, he becomes a victim of deception, already convinced that more Slovenians were killed by the Slovenians themselves than by the three occupiers.

Source: Emka