Description
THE BRIDGE ON THE DRINA – Ivo Andric
A stone bridge from the 16th century, an endowment of Mehmed-pasha Sokolovic, like a mute witness remembers the seeming harmony of different cultures, religions and peoples whereas deep antagonism exists between them. The difference between two civilisations, Eastern and Western, is the most obvious. In the period from its construction until its partial distruction at the beginning of the 20th century, the bridge was the only permanent and unchangeable spot from which all tensions and agitations that provoked conflicts between people, cultures, religions and empires of that time reflected off. That is the very fact that Ivo Andric used to create a fantastic four-hundred-years-long narrative arc of almost crystal clear literary style and thus made the bridge a part of our own lives.
he Bridge on the Drina is a vivid depiction of the suffering history has imposed upon the people of Bosnia from the late 16th century to the beginning of World War I. As we seek to make sense of the current nightmare in this region, this remarkable, timely book serves as a reliable guide to its people and history.
“No better introduction to the study of Balkan and Ottoman history exists, nor do I know of any work of fiction that more persuasively introduces the reader to a civilization other than our own. It is an intellectual and emotional adventure to encounter the Ottoman world through Andric’s pages in its grandiose beginning and at its tottering finale. It is, in short, a marvelous work, a masterpiece, and very much sui generis. . . . Andric’s sensitive portrait of social change in distant Bosnia has revelatory force.” – William H. McNeill, from the introduction
“The dreadful events occurring in Sarajevo over the past several months turn my mind to a remarkable historical novel from the land we used to call Yugoslavia, Ivo Andric’s The Bridge on the Drina.” – John M. Mohan, Des Moines Sunday Register
