Ivo Andric was born in 1892 in Travnik, Bosnia. His parents were Croat and he grew up alongside Orthodox Christians, Muslims and Roman Catholics in Visegrad, the town on the banks of the Drina in which the book is set. Andric served a Yugoslav diplomat until 1941, when he was placed under house arrest in Belgrade by the occupying Germans, and he turned to writing. In 1961, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Andric died in 1975.

In high school, one Saturday, I started reading a book by the Yugoslav novelist Ivo Andric: The Bridge on the Drina. By the time I finished it something in me had shifted forever

Ivo Andric was born in 1892 in Travnik, Bosnia. His parents were Croat and he grew up alongside Orthodox Christians, Muslims and Roman Catholics in Visegrad, the town on the banks of the Drina in which the book is set. Andric served a Yugoslav diplomat until 1941, when he was placed under house arrest in Belgrade by the occupying Germans, and he turned to writing. In 1961, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Andric died in 1975.

In high school, one Saturday, I started reading a book by the Yugoslav novelist Ivo Andric: The Bridge on the Drina. By the time I finished it something in me had shifted forever