The Bridge Over the Drina

By Ivo Andric,

Book cover of The Bridge Over the Drina

Book description

In the small Bosnian town of Visegrad the stone bridge of the novel's title, built in the sixteenth century on the instruction of a grand vezir, bears witness to three centuries of conflict. Visegrad has long been a bone of contention between the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires, but the bridge…

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Why read it?

1 author picked The Bridge Over the Drina as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This is a Nobel Prize for Literature-winning book that is a must-read for historical fiction enthusiasts.

Spanning some four hundred years, the centerpiece isn’t the usual high drama running across generations of a family but rather a bridge, the bridge over the river Drina.

The book is a surprisingly easy-to-read novel that follows periods in the lives of the peasants in a Bosnian town whose lives were marked by the bridge.

Through the telling of these stories, Andric subtly introduces the reader to the empires, religions, and cultures of the Balkans. 

Want books like The Bridge Over the Drina?

Our community of 11,000+ authors has personally recommended 89 books like The Bridge Over the Drina.

Browse books like The Bridge Over the Drina

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in the Balkans, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire?

The Balkans 21 books
Austria-Hungary 18 books