Originally published in 1975, The Defense and the Last Days is the final volume in a trilogy of novels (preceded by The Rise and Fall of Icarus Gubelkian and How to Quiet a Vampire) about the aftermath of World War II by Borislav Pekic, one of the former Yugoslavia�� most important post-war writers. The narrator tells his story from prison, where he is serving time for the murder of a former Nazi official. As the novel unfolds, we learn that the victim was the same person whom, while a lifeguard during the war, the narrator saved from drowning, making him vulnerable to charges of collaboration. In this tragicomic tale, Pekic explores eternal questions of fate and individual responsibility.
