The Black Cauldron

'The Black Cauldron' is not a war novel properly speaking, but a work of magic realism which traces a serious of boisterous, tragic-comic events in one of the more unusual western European societies. Spanning the tragedy of war, the clash of sectarian interests, the interplay of religion and sex, William Heinesen's story develops into a presentation in mythical form of the conflict between life and death, good and evil.