ABSTRACT
The bridge on the Drina Be it as a literary device or simply as a commonplace, bridges have always been popular to denote communication and understanding between people of different time periods, places or cultures. A beautiful example is seen in Na Drini ćuprija (The Bridge on the Drina), a superb novel in Serbo-Croatian by the Yugoslavian writer Ivo Andrić (1892-1975), winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961. It tells the story of the town of Višegrad in Bosnia and Herzegovina and its famous Mehmed Paša Sokolović bridge over the Drina river. The story spans about four centuries during the Ottoman and subsequent Austro-Hungarian administrations of the region. In wonderful detail and with a sense of mild humour, it describes the lives, destinies and relations of the local inhabitants, with a particular focus on Muslims and Orthodox Christians living together in Višegrad.
