Kaljuža i zvijezde

The Slough and the Stars is a monumental work for which MacKinlay Kantor was awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1956. The novel is based on a real historical site — the Confederate camp Camp Sumter (known as Andersonville) in Georgia, where more than 13,000 Union prisoners died in horrific conditions during the American Civil War. Extremely extensive and documentary-accurate, the novel does not follow just one hero, but through a multitude of intertwined destinies provides a broad panorama of human nature on trial. Kantor describes the cruelty of the camp administration, the prisoners' daily struggle against hunger, disease and mutual violence, as well as the lives of the local population whose properties were affected by the horrors of war. The title symbolically summarizes the central theme: "the slough" represents moral and physical sinking in conditions of inhumanity, while "the stars" denote the indomitable human spirit, dignity and hope. It is one of the most influential and powerful novels about the tragedy of war in 20th century American literature.