Historical fiction books from Bosnia and Herzegovina
Recommended historical fiction books (8)
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
If you are into historical fiction here are some historical fiction books from Bosnia and Herzegovina for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge.
1.
Bosnian Chronicle : A Novel by Ivo Andric EN
Country: Europe / Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Description:
Set in the town of Travnik, Bosnian Chronicle presents the struggle for supremacy in a region that stubbornly refuses to submit to any outsider. The era is Napoleonic and the novel, both in its historical scope and psychological subtlety, Tolstoyan. In its portrayal of conflict and fierce ethnic loyalties, the story is also eerily relevant. Ottoman viziers, French consuls, and Austrian plenipotentiaries are consumed by an endless game of diplomacy and double-dealing: expansive and courtly face-to-face, brooding and scheming behind closed doors. As they have for centuries, the Bosnians themselv... continue
2.
Byron and the Beauty by Muharem Bazdulj EN
Country: Europe / Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Description:
Byron and the Beauty is very loosely based on Byron's biography and takes place during two weeks of October, 1809, during his visit to the Balkans. Muharem Bazdulj marvelously combines facts with imagination, history, and romance, resulting in an exceptionally beautiful novel. Lord Byron ends up experiencing and embodying the lyrical Balkan condition of unrequited love called sevdah, but his valiant behavior also lands him in a regional folk song; this nod to changing cultural production in the Ottoman lands calls to mind the works of Ismail Kadare. From coffee to customary law, from courtship... continue
3.
How The Soldier Repairs The Gramophone by Saša Stanišić EN
Country: Europe / Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Description:
“A brilliant debut novel” about a young Bosnian War refugee who finds the secret to survival in language and stories (Los Angeles Times). For Aleksandar Krsmanović, Grandpa Slavko’s stories endow life in Višegrad with a kaleidoscopic brilliance. Neighbors, friends, and family past and present take on a mythic quality; the River Drina courses through town like the pulse of life itself. So when his grandfather dies suddenly, Aleksandar promises to carry on the tradition. But then soldiers invade Višegrad—a town previously unconscious of racial and religious divides—and it’s no longer important t... continue
4.
My Heart : A Novel by Semezdin Mehmedinovic EN
Country: Europe / Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Description:
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice "Intelligent, honest, and full of heart," My Heart is an intimate work of autobiographical fiction by one of ex-Yugoslavia's greatest writers about his family's experience as refugees from the Bosnian war—a timeless story of love, memory, and the resilience of the human spirit that "has all the qualities one might seek in a friend" (Etgar Keret, author of The Seven Goods Years). "Today, it seems, was the day I was meant to die." When a writer suffers a heart attack at the age of fifty, he must confront his mortality in a country that is not his nati... continue
5.
The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andrić EN
Country: Europe / Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Description:
Chronicle of three centuries of Balkan life, centering around a great stone bridge in present-day Yugoslavia.
6.
The Judgment of Richard Richter by Igor Stiks EN
Country: Europe / Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Description:
In this gripping, war-torn epic novel, author Igor Stiks, a nominee for the IMPAC Dublin Award, tells the story of a celebrated writer who travels to Sarajevo to unearth devastating family secrets and the lies that have defined his life. Author Richard Richter's mother and father were always phantoms, both parents having died by the time he was four. His life, now at a crossroads, has been a jumble of invention, elusive memories, and handed-down stories. But when Richard finds his mother's hidden notebook, written by her during World War II, he discovers a confession that was never meant to be... continue
7.
the lazarus project by Aleksandar Hemon EN
Country: Europe / Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Description:
‘Prose this powerful could wake the dead’ – Observer Crossing a century of Eastern European history, The Lazarus Project is a profound exploration of alienation and the immigrant experience from Aleksandar Hemon, author of The World and All That It Holds. On 2 March 1908, Lazarus Averbuch, a young Russian Jewish immigrant to Chicago, tried to deliver a letter to the city’s Chief of Police. He was shot dead. After the shooting, it was claimed he was an anarchist assassin and an agent of foreign operatives who wanted to bring the United States to its knees. His sister, Olga, was left alone and b... continue
8.
Un puente sobre el Drina by Ivo Andrić ES
Country: Europe / Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Description:
Un puente sobre el Drina (1945) es una novela de largo aliento, que transcurre en la localidad de Visegrad, frente al río Drina, desde el siglo XVI, cuando dentro del Imperio Otomano se inició la construcción del puente, atravesando diversas generaciones en la conviven cristianos, musulmanes y judíos sefaradíes, hasta llegar al fatídico 1914. La perspectiva histórica permite diferenciar las pasiones efímeras y la constante del género humano, en especial los que en cada generación contribuyen a su bienestar. Una obra de gran ... continue