The Bridge on the Drina

It is written in such an eloquent way, it feels like I'm living it through. Especially first quarter of the book, it is truly heart wrenching! Highly recommended.

This masterpiece and Nobel Prize winner written by Ex Yugoslavian author Ivo Andric is one of the best literary works written and can be compared with novels written by the world most renewed authors.He demonstrated exceptional quality of story telling and obviously admirable amount of historical research done in order to write this novel which cover four hundred years of life in city of Višegard including legends about building bridge across river Drina and legends which include people who lived in Višegrad but bridge has central importance of story. Novel is starting during 16th Century and introduction of Ottoman Empire and their rule over this part of world.The Bridge on Drina , also title of the book and center of the story was built as a legacy of Grand Vezir Mehmed Paša Sokolović who served under three sultans and oversees the Ottoman Empire's expansion into Central Europe. He was born in a Serbian/orthodox family in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in a village near city of Višegrad. Grand Vezir Mehmed Paša Sokolovic was taken as one of the many Christians boys as part of “tax in blood“ to Turkey. He never forgot where he was born and in his memory survived a clear picture of Drina and how he was taken by Turks. Further in the novel Ivo Andrić describes complicated lives of Bosnian people challenged by religious and cultural difference and at the same time during big natural disasters united by their mutual grief. In the book he describes the political influence of Serbia on people in Bosnia as the city of Višegrad is bordering Serbia. As story progress is described end of Ottoman empire and story of withdrawal Turks from Bosnia ,Austro Ugarska occupation and rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina, their influence on culture and life in region which slowly dominated above Ottoman legacy in area which was built for hundreds of years. If you ever wonder how people in Bosnia and Herzegovina live together regardless of their religious difference , ethnicity and war challenges and if you want to understand these people then this historical novel is a must read.

Amazing book written by Serbian Nobel prize winner

A lifetime read . Creativity the author had earned him a place in the company of the masters like Cervantes ,Dostoyevsky , Tolstoy , Thomas Mann, James Joyce , Marquez and George Perec .

From the first page to the very end, its mastery, beauty and the depth of thoughts never wanes. This is an incredible, exceptional literature with so much history of the people of Visegrad from the time of the building of the bridge in the 16th Century till 1914, the war, and their humanity constantly violated by bigger forces. It is written (I am assuming because the translation is so beautiful) poetically, almost with subtle rhythm, deeply moving... lamentation over the destruction of people's love, life, faith, their songs... their existence. The bridge, the bearer of all the songs and stories of the people, their legends, over shared plum brandy, the bearer of the violence, executions and suicides, the bearer of broken hearts and weeping parents and martyrs and numerous victims.... "But the bridge still stood, the same as it had always been, with the eternal youth of a perfect conception, one of the great and good works of man, which do not know what it means to change and grow old and which, or so it seemed, do not share the fate of the transient things of this world" "the kapia was there where it had always been, but just beyond the kapia the bridge stopped short. there was no longer any seventh pier; between the sixth and the eight yawned a gulf through which he could see the green waters of the river. From the eighth pier onward the bridge once more stretched to the farther bank, smooth and regular and white, as it had been yesterday and always"