The Bridge on the Drina

This classic from Nobel laureate Andrić (1892–1975), first published in 1945, examines Balkan history prior to WWI through the lens of Višegrad, a city on the banks of the Drina near the border between Bosnia and Serbia. Completed in 1571, a stone bridge quickly becomes both the setting for and a witness to consequential and quotidian events. From its construction under the tyrannical foreman Abidaga, who orders a man impaled on the scaffolding as a warning to saboteurs, until its shelling in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the bridge—unchanging “with the years or with the centuries or with the most painful turns in human affairs”—sees the fates of the city’s ethnic groups (Turks, Muslims, Christians, and Jews) fluctuate with the fortunes of regional powers (Ottomans, Austro-Hungarians, and Slavic nationalists). The rich chronicle is leavened with fascinating tales, like the one about a gambler who bets his life in a card game and a cursed “devil’s ducat,” and unforgettable characters, particularly Lotte, the Jewish widow who ran Višegrad’s first hotel with the aplomb of Rick Blaine, and Alihodja, the pacifist Muslim shopkeeper who is nailed to the bridge by his ear. Andrić’s observations remain shockingly relevant in what they say about the region and about the forces that try to divide people. (Nov.)