The Bridge on the Drina - Paperback

by Ivo Andric (Author), William H. McNeill (Introduction by), Lovett F. Edwards (Translator)

*NOBEL PRIZE WINNER* A classic novel of war, suffering, and survival in Bosnia

Internationally acclaimed since its original publication just after World War II, The Bridge on the Drina is a vivid historical novel that uses the Mehmed Pasa Sokolovic Bridge as the centerpiece of the story of Bosnia and its people from the late sixteenth 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. Through powerful stories of the people who make history--and the people suffer under those who do--Ivo Andric traces the story of the Bosnian people from the Ottoman Empire through the domination of Austria-Hungary and into the rising tide of competing nationalist ideologies that set the stage for the tragedy of World War I.

Written while Andric was under house arrest during the Nazi occupation, The Bridge on the Drina is as gripping as a soap opera, bringing history down to the level of compelling individual lives and experiences. It is one of the landmark works of twentieth-century literature, as powerful today as it ever was.

Back Jacket

A great stone bridge built three centuries ago in the heart of the Balkans by a Grand Vezir of the Ottoman Empire dominates the setting of Ivo Andric's novel. A vivid depiction of the suffering history has imposed upon the people of Bosnia from the late sixteenth century to the beginning of World War I, 'The Bridge on the Drina' earned Andric the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1961.

Author Biography

Ivo Andric (1892-1975) was a Serbo-Croatian novelist, poet and short story writer who was awarded the 1961 Nobel Prize in Literature. His published works, many of which focus on life in Bosnia under Ottoman Rule, include The Bridge on the Drina, The Pasha's Concubine and Other Tales, and The Damned Yard.