Following the destinies of more than 70 characters, on all warring sides, Gatalica depicts the experiences of winners and losers, generals and opera singers, soldiers and spies, managing to grasp the atmosphere of the entire epoch of WWI, not only of these crucial four and a half bloody years, but also in the innocent decades that preceded the war, and the poisoned ones that followed. The stories themselves are various but equally important: here we find joyful as well as tragic destinies, along with examples of exceptional heroism. Yet The Great War never becomes a chronicle, nor a typical historical novel; above all it is a work of art that uses historic events as means to tell many fantastic stories, often with unbelievable and unthinkable convolutions. It is commendable in its breadth, its vision, and its relevance to modern history.