The Bridge on the Drina is a novel that is rich with human stories, complex cultures of several nations, battles and wars, and moral and immoral choices. Amid all this intricacy, the novel has the bridge over the river Drina as its main character. A secondary character is the town of Visegrad, now a village between Bosnia and Serbia, and the other surrounding towns, where, Turks, Serbs, Sephardic Jews, and other minorities have lived together for centuries mostly in rivalry but still in solidarity especially when the going gets tough.

The story begins with the birth of the bridge or rather its first originator’s life. The Ottomans take a young Serb boy by force to Stamboul, Istanbul now, give him the name Mehmet and raise him to become the Grand Vizier (in other words the prime minister) of the Ottoman Empire. Yet, Mehmet hasn’t forgotten the place where he has grown up until the age of ten and knows the awful flooding of the river Drina and what it does to its environs.

Now that he has the means, that Serb boy, now Mehmed-pasha Sokolovic (Sokollu Mehmet Pasha-in Turkish) hires the best architects and builders and the construction of the bridge together with the Caravanserai (fancy guest house totally free for travelers as the Ottomans pay for all costs) begins in 1566. The caravanserai eventually is called the Stone Han.

The building of the bridge runs into many troubles such as a crooked overseer, the sabotaging workers or serfs, and the cutting of the stones from a nearby quarry. Eventually, the bridge is built with a wide berth in the middle, which is a place called the kapia (meaning gate), with stone seats, and this area of the bridge becomes the meeting place for the surrounding area folks of all religions and their children.

Afterward, no matter what happens with the people and their fights or friendships or the weather, the bridge stands as a gift from God and the Grand Vizier for about 350 years with an almost haunting metaphysical power. Then in 1914 when the first world war begins the bridge loses its mid-section to an explosion.

The novel captures and contrasts the ins and outs of nations and races, human nature, social and historical events throughout the book. The story is also filled with original characters, some quirky, others stable but all wonderfully portrayed. The narration is realistic and neutral without taking sides or making judgments.

As much as I loved reading this very interesting novel, I have to warn other readers of its violent content that surfaces and resurfaces with all the human altercations and wars. In other words, this book is not for those who can become easily upset and emotional with violent content.

Still, everything about this high-scale, historical epic is brilliant and impressive and sometimes with humor, despite its tragic content. No wonder it won the Nobel Prize.

realizing what true literature can be like.

everything.

learn more about the bridge, Mehmet Pasha, and the author Ivo Andrić.

awed.

was Ivo Andrić, a Yugoslav novelist, poet and short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961.

it is an epic that deserves to be read.

Although the novel ends with the midsection of the bridge blown away, that bridge still stands and has been a witness to other atrocities. I don't know how or when the middle section was fixed, but on youtube, there are several videos of the bridge and also photos of it with all its eleven sections, if you google it.

Ivo Andric wrote this book while in exile in Belgrade. I consider him a hero because he didn't bend under the Nazis.

My review, by the way, doesn't do justice to the book because even a halfway decent review would probably take several pages.

Here are a few links that show the Bridge, which is being restored at this time.
The last link is in Spanish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35xEyCqE9FI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfYnqp4JxCc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRwZS_97us0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NBQUlK_pO4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFKk1n1LNLg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4oS6qIcBHc

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Created Oct 18, 2018 at 3:25pm • Submit your own review...