Hladni rat: Brevijar nefikcijske književnosti

Cold War by Muharem Bazdulj (born 1977, Travnik/Sarajevo, Bosnian-Herzegovinian writer, essayist, translator) is a collection of selected non-fiction texts written between 2005 and 2019. The book was not written for daily newspapers or news-magazine formats, but primarily for literary journals, anthologies, collections and conferences – therefore the style is erudite, reflective and deeply analytical.

It consists of four thematic parts:

• The first part (“Cold War”) contains two essays that deal with the Cold War era in different ways – the ideological conflict between East and West, cultural implications, espionage, propaganda and legacy in the post-socialist world. Bazdulj uses historical and literary examples to show how the Cold War shaped identities, art and the perception of freedom.
• The second part ("Road Map") brings travelogues and travel essays - reflections on travels, cities and cultures, with an emphasis on the Balkans and beyond.
• The third and fourth parts focus on literary criticism, portraits of writers, cultural phenomena and contemporary topics - from Andrić and Yugoslav literature to global issues of identity, migration and post-socialist society.

Bazdulj's style is elegant, precise, with a touch of irony and a deep knowledge of literature (English, American, Balkan). The texts are intellectual, but accessible - critical of nationalisms, ideologies and superficial interpretations of history. The book is a continuation of his essayistic opus (such as Selected Places, Square Root from Life), where he combines the personal, literary and historical.