The story unfolds in the final days of the Byzantine Empire (1453), focusing on the by Sultan Mehmed II’s Ottoman forces. Key elements:
: The book functions as a manual for fortune-telling ( priručnik za gatanje ). Each chapter corresponds to a Tarot card (e.g., The Fool, The Magician), and the narrative shifts based on whether a card is "upright" or "reversed" during a reading.
: Like Pavić's other works, such as the dictionary-style Dictionary of the Khazars , this novel breaks traditional storytelling boundaries by making the reader an active participant. 2. Plot Summary and Setting
of the Tarot. Each of the 22 chapters corresponds to a specific card, and the reader is invited to "deal" their own experience—shuffling the order of reading or even using the book to tell their own fortune. Plot and Setting Set during the Napoleonic Wars