The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andrić (A Bosnian Classic Novel)

In this video I discuss Ivo Andrić's masterpiece "The Bridge on the Drina". This is one of the best Bosnian novels of all time. Ivo Andric is a Nobel Prize winning author. In this video I summarise the novel and then discuss some of its themes. I'm on journey to read the best fiction from every country on earth. This is my choice for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Music:

[MeirHarZion]

Ivo Andrić' was not Bosnian, he identified as a Serb and a Yugoslav.

[toprope_]

I had to read this for a Balkans culture class in college. One of the only books I kept from my electives, the author has amazing brutality right next to the beauty of humanity. The most beautiful bridge holds all of the love and hate of the village and far beyond.

[ivanalalicki]

What a pleasant surprise! Andrić's novel is a wonderful book. I have to tell you that you got it, although you are not from the Balkans. You have to have some history background of this region of Europe, that is not well known, to understand the book. It is very eventful but also tragic. Andrić is a such a great author, his writing and understanding of human nature is so unique, I am glad that I read many of his novels in original, in Serbian. Meša Selimović is also a great author, that's nice that you are curious about the Balkan literature.

[donmikan]

Hi! Have you read Death and the Dervish by Yugoslavian Meša Selimović? He's just as good as Ivo Andrić, for me even better.

[ramanathannv]

Thank you very much for your beautiful and consise explanation of one of the greatest works of fiction written in a language spoken by a very few people in the eastern Europe. The personification of the bridge across the river drina speaks volumes about the clarity of purpose of the writer to tell the his and her story of more than three centuries.
The bridge stands like a unspoken witness to the events which took place for a long time.
Thank you once again

[sakigreece]

Ivo Andric is Serbian nationality like Tesla... but bourn in Bosnia drini cuprija is just one of many masterpiece he wrote...world class writer Nobel price didn't mean nothing to him...Yugoslavia celebrated him...he just wanted to write

[kuttikuttan]

Great narration great video congrats. Hope to hear about Zorba the Greek of Kazantsakis and The Train Was on Time by Heinrich Boll

[peca]

Like the review, just to say that he was Serbian from Bosnia, and lived in Serbia until he died.

[yasba]

You are amazing, thank you for such efforts

[majdoulineelaasemi]

Another amazing review ! Thank you for making an author I never heard of. I am going to read it! I just finish a book called Moi, Jerusalem from Sinoué where the city is the main character and describe how it feels and what she has witnessed in the last 3000 years.

[serbianbro]

Not a Bosnian tho, Andrić declared himself as a Serb many times

[nikolab]

If you like The Bridge on the Drina you will also like Bosnian Chronicle. I have the book(.pdf) in English, if you want I can send it to you.

[cobrakilla]

Bosnian has nothing to do with it. Ivo Andric was a Serb from Yugoslavia. Bosnia is just a region where the work of the Novel is based in, it has nothing to do with the etymology of the piece.

[bbbrankobbb]

A nice summary, but not really a "Bosnian" novel. Ivo Andric was the only writer in former Yugoslavia to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. As such this would be a "Yugoslavian" novel at the very least. But, if you choose to acknowledge what Ivo Andric writes about himself and how he declares his own nationality, much like Mesa Selimovic, then it would be as a Serbian and as part of the Serbian literary tradition. Bosnia and Hercegovina as a political entity is young as you mentioned and composed of two equal entities created by the Dayton accords - "the Republic of Srpska" and the "Federation of Bosnia and Hercegovina". Visegrad is within the "Republic of Srpska".

[MrSarajevofresh]

Excellent review. Ivo Andrić is a complicated personality like Bosnia and Herzegovina itself, his homeland.
Given that he is a child from a mixed marriage of a Bosnian Croat mother and a Bosnian Serb father, a search for identity can be noticed in his soul. In the novel, he expresses these personal complexes by excessively praising the Serbs as the most numerous nation in Yugoslavia. He writes to them what they like to hear the most, which are lamentations and the eternal act of victimhood. It is not a problem for him that, according to the Serbian diktat, he denies Bosniaks their nationality, calling them Turks, while consciously ignoring a thousand years of Bosnian history and ignoring the genetics of Bosniaks, the "whitest Muslims" in Europe. Nevertheless, Bosniaks are somewhat repaid with an honest description of their struggle against the Austro-Hungarian occupation and through the good-natured characters of the local Bosniaks, while attributing all evil to the Turkish occupiers. All in all, a masterpiece of Bosnian literature and a more than deserved Nobel Prize.
In my opinion, Dervish and Death is an even greater masterpiece of Bosnian literature, and in my opinion it was unfairly not awarded the Nobel Prize.

[dejanpopovic]

Ivo Andric is Serbian author, not Bosnian.

[milosbabic]

Great analysis, I love your channel. You put a lot of work in to your analysis. I watched all your clips about Russian writers and they are amazing. Specially Dostoyevsky, I feel that he left a notable impact on you. I realize that it does not matter weather Ivo Andric was Bosnian or Serb, as much as it does not matter whether Nikola Tesla was Croatian or Serb, as their work speaks for them self. However imagine saying that George Orwell was from Scotland, or Fransoa Mari Arue, was Spanish writer. Trust me when I say not all Serbian are nationalist, and generalization of any kind is difficult. Ivo Andric and Nikola Tesla are two giants from Balkans, however if reading their words, both of them declared themselves as a Serbs. I would also like to recommend you Milorad Pavic Dictionary of Khazars, I think you will find this book interesting, and maybe one day you will make a short analysis. Thank you for all your effort.

[gerardterveer]

My favorite novel of Ivo Andric is "Bosnian Chronicles".

[donaldkelly]

About 15 years ago, I encountered Drina and thought it was incredible! It was the sweep of narrative I liked the most.
Since then, I've read The Time of the Counsels, about the effect of the Napoleonic wars on Bosnia.Recently, I picked up Omer Pasha Latas, Andric's unfinished novel about a Turkish military governor in Belgrade.
I recommend both.

[CatApocalypse]

If it's reminiscent of One Hundred Years of Solitude, then it should be right up my alley!