Andrić, Ivo, << AHN drihch, EE voh >> (1892-1975), a Bosnian novelist and short-story writer, won the 1961 Nobel Prize in literature. He is best known for the novels in his “Balkan Trilogy,” written in the Serbo-Croatian language. They are The Bridge on the Drina, Bosnian Chronicle, and The Woman from Sarajevo. All three novels were originally published in 1945.
Andrić set most of his fiction in his native Bosnia. After World War I, he wrote three collections of short stories (in 1924, 1931, and 1936). While living in Belgrade during World War II (1939-1945), Andrić wrote his Balkan Trilogy. The novels deal with Bosnian life under the rule of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans ruled Bosnia from 1463 to 1878, but Andrić’s Bosnia is composed of many religious denominations—Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Muslim, and Jewish.
In The Bridge on the Drina, Andrić recounted the history of a Bosnian bridge and the region around it over 350 years. Bosnian Chronicle is a historical novel set in the Bosnian city of Travnik during the early 1800’s. The Woman from Sarajevo explores the life of a miserly old woman in the city of Sarajevo, the capital of modern Bosnia-Herzegovina.
After World War II, Andrić wrote many short stories and short novels. They were published in such collections as The Vizier’s Elephant (1948), The Damned Yard (1954), and The Pasha’s Concubine (1963).
Andrić was born on Oct. 10, 1892, in Dolac, near Travnik, in what is now Bosnia-Herzegovina. The region was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time of Andrić’s birth. It later became part of the country of Yugoslavia. Andrić was first educated at a Jesuit academy and then studied philosophy in several universities. He received a Ph.D. in Slavic languages and literature from the University of Graz in Austria in 1923. From 1920 to 1941, Andrić served in Yugoslavia’s diplomatic service. He was a member of the Yugoslav parliament from 1949 to 1955. He died on March 13, 1975.
