Ivo Andric's The Bridge Over the Drina is an excellent historical novel which won Andric the Nobel Prize for literature. Set in Bosnia, its storyline spans three centuries and centres on the town on Visegrad and, specifically, the bridge over the river Drina. Notable is the absence of a central human character - the only object present from start to finish is the bridge. Essentially this book is history through narrative. Reading it has taught me lots about the history of the Balkans, from the Ottoman Empire through to World War One. It covers things like the religious tension in Bosnia between Catholics, Orthodox Christians and Muslims. All this is taught, however, through stories about ordinary people - stories that happened on or around the bridge. In that respect it's very different from most novels. Getting to follow the history of a community is not something that most novels allow you to do - and that makes it very interesting. I highly recommend it.
