Fear and His Servant

Mirjana Novaković’s book “Fear and His Servant” was nominated for a prestigious NIN magazine award, previously received by authors such as Milorad Pavić and Goran Petrović. This novel became the most popular Serbian work of the early 2000s.

The Devil goes to Belgrade to hunt vampires, but in fact he’s afraid of them. So he hides behind the backs of local aristocrats and his assistant. Trying to entertain himself in the city, he attempts to seduce a married duchess, but she is in love with someone else. It doesn’t really matter to the Devil, because his thoughts are increasingly occupied by memories of Heaven, evenings with Mary Magdalene, meetings with Jesus, and the Second Coming.

The reader is drawn into the detective, romantic, and historical parts of the book while the author plays a game with them. The duchess and the Devil turn out to be unreliable narrators. When their investigation leads to the grave of the famous Serbian vampire Sava Savanović, the story splits into two lines, and the reader must choose which ending to accept.

In its plot structure, “Fear and His Servant” echoes Mikhail Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita,” Terry Pratchett’s “Good Omens,” and Neil Gaiman’s work, as well as the series “Lucifer.” One could imagine that the local Devil is an early version of Lucifer—only before the events in Los Angeles, for a few more centuries.