The World And All That It Holds by Aleksandar Hemon

As the Archduke Franz Ferdinand arrives in Sarajevo one June day in 1914, Rafael Pinto is busy crushing herbs and grinding tablets behind the counter at the pharmacy he inherited from his father. It's not quite the life he had expected during his poetry-filled student days in libertine Vienna, but it's nothing a dash of laudanum, a summer stroll and idle fantasies can't put in perspective. And then the world explodes.

In the trenches in Galicia, fantasies fall flat. Heroism gets a man killed quickly. War devours all that they have known, and the only thing Pinto has to live for are the attentions of Osman, a fellow soldier, a man of action to complement Pinto's introspective, poetic soul; a charismatic storyteller and Pinto's protector and lover.
 
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'A staggering work of beauty and brutality' - Douglas Stuart
 
'This life-stuffed novel is Aleksandar Hemon’s masterpiece' - David Mitchell
 
'The irrepressible voice of The World and All That It Holds glides along a cushion of poignancy buoyed by wry humor.' - The Washington Post