The Bridge on the Drina

Born in Bosnia, Ivo Andric (1892-1975) was a distinguished diplomat and novelist. Other works include: The Damned Yard: And Other Stories, and The Days of the Consuls. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1961. 

No better introduction to the study of Balkan and Ottoman history exists, nor do I know of any work of fiction that more persuasively introduces the reader to a civilization other than our own. It is an intellectual and emotional adventure to encounter the Ottoman world through Andric's pages in its grandiose beginning and at its tottering finale. It is, in short, a marvelous work, a masterpiece, and very much sui generis. . . . Andric's sensitive portrait of social change in distant Bosnia has revelatory force."—William H. McNeill