“That New Year little Mensur Ćeman learned that Grandfather Frost really did exist, but that he was not the kind old man from the Coca-Cola ad bringing colorfully wrapped presents for the children—he was an infidel arsonist, and it was because of him that he now lived at his Uncle Irfan’s and had to go to school in Darkovo, six kilometers away. From that New Year on, little Mensur dreamed every night of a grimacing red monster with a white beard steering his ominous red truck into their village.”
From the short story “The Red Devil” by Croatian writer Boris Dežulović, translated by Will Firth that delves into the cultural and religious clashes in Bosnia through the confused and scared eyes of a child.
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Photo – The British Army in North-west Europe 1944-45 – ‘St Nicholas’ arrives on a Sherman ARV as part of St Nicholas Day celebrations in Rucphen, near Roosendaal in Holland, 6 December 1944/ wikimedia
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