Track 5
Look quickly through the text and find the information you need.
1. Ivo Andrić was not only a writer but also a ______________. 2. What kind of prize did he receive? ________________ 3. The story of his book The Bridge on the Drina takes place in_____________. 4. Besides novels he wrote ______________________.
UNIT 2A
IVO ANDRIĆ
READING The history of the Balkans is full of colourful and important figures. Ivo Andrić, a distinguished diplomat, an influential poet, novelist, and a Nobel Prize winner, is certainly one of them.
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His works reveal his philosophy and sympathy for the sufferings of people and they are written in an objective and serious way, in language of great beauty and purity. Ivo Andrić (1892–1975) was born in the Bosnian town of Travnik. He was educated in many towns and received his doctorate in history in Graz in 1924. He was in the diplomatic service from 1921 to 1941. He left Berlin in 1941 to settle in Belgrade and devoted his time exclusively to writing. He wrote his major works The Bridge on the Drina, The Bosnian Story and Miss during World War II and published them in 1945. After the war, he wrote many short stories and essays. In 1961, this powerful prose writer received the Nobel Prize in Literature. His works have been translated into all the major world languages.
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He found the material for his works mainly in the folklore and culture of his native Bosnia under the Ottoman Empire. The Nobel Prize committee particularly praised “the epic force with which he depicted human destinies drawn from the history of his country”, especially in his best-known book, a historical fiction, The Bridge on the Drina. The Bridge on the Drina is a book about civilization and its changes. Its focus is on the lives, destinies and relationships of the local inhabitants of a quiet Bosnian town, where the bridge is the central and everlasting feature. This masterpiece is a remarkable depiction of social changes in Bosnia from the late 16th century to the beginning of World War I.
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