Ivo Andriç - Drina Köprüsü (Kitap İncelemesi)

The Bridge on the Drina is a historical novel in which place is the central character. It recounts the centuries-long period from the construction of the Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Bridge, built on the Drina Bridge in 1577, to 1914. Numerous characters come and go, and significant political and historical events unfold. The narrative is told through a gentle, third-person narrator. Major events that will completely alter people's lives occur, but life continues to flow on its own. Some react to these events, while others accept them and move on. Set in the town of Višegrad, Andrić impartially portrays how Serbs, Bosnians, Christians, Muslims, and Jews forged a single society. Perhaps the most important aspect of this novel is the narrator's impartiality. By depicting the Ottoman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Balkan Wars, and the emergence of nation-states through the changes on the Drina Bridge, the novel exquisitely presents its readers with the witness of the setting.