Knights of the Cross - Volume 6. Huniade's Revenge - Andrei Breaban

The reconstruction of the era, with its painstakingly documented medieval atmosphere, is realized exclusively through dialogue, punctuated by several descriptions - clothing, portraits (Petru Aron, the young Stefan Musat and Vlad Tepes, without the imprint of princely authority, Mohamed the Conqueror, Iancu de Hunedoara).
The narrative progresses through dialogue. The historical events, amply and rigorously documented through an impressive bibliography, nonfiction prevailing, in strict historical notation, are brought to the fore by the way they are reflected in the contemporary thinking of those who live them at the incandescent temperature of actuality.
The narrative formula includes in the adventurous epic, of head and sword, history and myth, document and story. The writer is more concerned with history than discourse, telling a credible story seems to be his stake in this reconstruction. Fiction and non-fiction are, by the proportion of believable and truthful, in a fair ratio of literary credibility. Imagination fills only those gaps that allow addition, without the overall picture suffering from the point of view of historical truth. Andrei Breaban proceeds like an archaeologist who reconstructs the ancient amphora from fragments, using his imagination to reach the verisimilitude image of the truth of life superimposed on the historical truth.
Andrei Breaban proves, as a writer, an appreciable ability to master the historical document, to absorb it, mostly in fiction, balancing the plates of story and history. Veracity supports the verisimilitude of historical facts and brings them into the aura of literature.

Ana Dobre, "The discrete fear of history in literature"; published in "Convorbiri literare" Iasi, no. 4(328) from April 2023