The Bridge on the Drina: Phoenix Fiction

 

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 Paša Sokolović 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.