Tatarska pustinja

Dino Buzzati's novel The Tartar Desert could be interpreted as a kind of echo of the so-called literature of the absurd, if everything in it were not already too normal. It is a story about a man who, faced with the meaninglessness of the world and life in it, overcomes this problem very simply, almost imperceptibly, by submitting to the absurdity of his life situation without many questions, no longer placing any demands on his life. This deprives him of a basic human trait: resistance to meaninglessness and the struggle for the content of his own life.

The hero of this book, a young officer, is eagerly awaiting his first duty after military school. He has been assigned to a mysterious fortress on the edge of the desert from which an enemy invasion once came: once, but never again. However, according to military logic, danger is always possible on that desert border. Our hero gradually adapts to his living environment to the point that life without the fortress and its false purpose becomes unimaginable to him. After a few years, he returns to his hometown for a short vacation. This challenges him to think about how to continue his life.