The Pillar
This story got a 3 star rating instead of 4 from me because of entirely personal reasons and most people would probably enjoy it more than I did.
I think I would have liked this book more if I wasn't trying to make a connection between the setting of the book (15th century Bosnia) and what I've been taught in school about that part of Balkans history. It's not that the writer did something wrong, it's just that I grew up with a certain image about that period, and I couldn't quite reconcile it with what I've read in the book.
I also had a problem with the endearment "dusha" - it's a word that means literally "my soul" but the only place I've heard it used that way are folk songs. Today it's used rarely, and then usually in a condescending way, the way the words "honey" or "sweetheart" can be used in a negative context ("Don't worry your pretty little head honey"). If a person I was in a relationship with used it on me, I would think he/she was sickeningly cheesy and ask him/her to please stop.
It was used very often in the book and it was glaringly out of place. It made me cringe so much I had to put the book down for several hours. I'm not sure everyone from this speaking area would feel as I did though.
On a bright note - it was put in the correct grammatical case in different situations, something most English speaking fiction writers that tried to use Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian language in the past (at least that I've seen) had disregarded, so hooraaah for that.
Unfortunately, all this was enough to distract me from what is an excellent story with wonderful main and side characters and all around an engaging read
