Ivo Andrić

Ivo Andrić was born on October 9, 1892, in Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His life was profoundly marked by the political turmoil of the region and by the two World Wars. He studied at universities in Europe, but his literary career developed mainly in Yugoslavia. Andrić is celebrated for his novels and short stories that explore life under Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian rule, the coexistence of different ethnicities and religions, and the resilience of the human spirit. 'The Bridge on the Drina' (1945), 'Travnik Chronicle' (1945), and 'The Devil's Yard' (1948) are some of his most important works. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961, for "the epic force with which he has traced themes drawn from the history of his nation and the flow of human destiny". Andrić died on March 13, 1975, in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (present-day Serbia).