Ermine in Chernopol: a Maghreb novel

In the mythical Chernivtsi, the capital of the fictitious Teskovina - based on these topographical names Chernivtsi and Bukovyna are easily guessed - the major of the hussar regiment Nikolaus Tildi, who has a hypertrophied sense of honor, is considered a "white crow". The eccentric escapades of this newest Don Quixote, unfolding in the "Maghreb" atmosphere of the city, where meanness is not considered a crime, end fatally for him. The author depicts for us a unique gallery of human types, reminiscent of the grotesque heroes of Lawrence Stern or Heimito von Doderer. Gregor von Rezzori's novel "The Ermine in Chernopol", awarded the Theodore Fontane Prize in 1958, still remains a landmark work of German literature of the second half of the 20th century.