Teško je naći na Orijentu građevinu koja je cela lepa, čista, i kojoj se ništa ne bi moglo prigovoriti. Ali, s druge strane, ne postoji na Istoku građevina koja, ma kako oronula i zapuštena bila, nema bar pedalj zelene bašte, ili česmu žive vode, ili samo jednu jedinu saksiju sa pažljivo negovanim cvećem minđušice ili ruže mesečarke. Orijent je divno čudo i najveći užas, jer u njemu granica između smrti i života nije jasno određena, nego krivuda i treperi. Ivo Andrić
Jedanaest pripovedaka iz zbirke Turske priče po egzotičnosti tema i udaljenom istorijskom trenutku nalikuju kakvom rukavcu iz Hiljadu i jedne noći. U njima pisac rasvetljava istorijske, verske, kulturološke i socijalne specifičnosti jednog tegobnog prostora rođenog u patnji i krvi, gde vladaju zakoni nepomirljive konfesionalne različitosti; dočarava egzistencijalnu strepnju pravednika suočenih sa moćnicima; pokazuje psihološku eroziju moćnika i pokušaj istrebljenja slabijeg, boljeg i lepšeg; razobličava tiraniju i trpljenje u okviru orijentalnog bosanskog sveta izrazite hibridnosti, ali odaje i nepodeljenu pohvalu trajnosti lepote koja prevazilazi i samo trajanje zla.
Ivo Andrić (Serbian Cyrillic: Иво Андрић; born Ivan Andrić) was a Yugoslav novelist, poet and short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961. His writings dealt mainly with life in his native Bosnia under Ottoman rule. Born in Travnik in Austria-Hungary, modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, Andrić attended high school in Sarajevo, where he became an active member of several South Slav national youth organizations. Following the assassination of Archduke of Austria Franz Ferdinand in June 1914, Andrić was arrested and imprisoned by the Austro-Hungarian police, who suspected his involvement in the plot. As the authorities were unable to build a strong case against him, he spent much of the war under house arrest, only being released following a general amnesty for such cases in July 1917. After the war, he studied South Slavic history and literature at universities in Zagreb and Graz, eventually attaining his PhD. in Graz in 1924. He worked in the diplomatic service of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 1920 to 1923 and again from 1924 to 1941. In 1939, he became Yugoslavia's ambassador to Germany, but his tenure ended in April 1941 with the German-led invasion of his country. Shortly after the invasion, Andrić returned to German-occupied Belgrade. He lived quietly in a friend's apartment for the duration of World War II, in conditions likened by some biographers to house arrest, and wrote some of his most important works, including Na Drini ćuprija (The Bridge on the Drina). Following the war, Andrić was named to a number of ceremonial posts in Yugoslavia, which had since come under communist rule. In 1961, the Nobel Committee awarded him the Nobel Prize in Literature, selecting him over writers such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert Frost, John Steinbeck and E.M. Forster. The Committee cited "the epic force with which he ... traced themes and depicted human destinies drawn from his country's history". Afterwards, Andrić's works found an international audience and were translated into a number of languages. In subsequent years, he received a number of awards in his native country. Andrić's health declined substantially in late 1974 and he died in Belgrade the following March. In the years following Andrić's death, the Belgrade apartment where he spent much of World War II was converted into a museum and a nearby street corner was named in his honour. A number of other cities in the former Yugoslavia also have streets bearing his name. In 2012, filmmaker Emir Kusturica began construction of an ethno-town in eastern Bosnia that is named after Andrić. As Yugoslavia's only Nobel Prize-winning writer, Andrić was well known and respected in his native country during his lifetime. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, beginning in the 1950s and continuing past the breakup of Yugoslavia, his works have been disparaged by Bosniak literary critics for their supposed anti-Muslim bias. In Croatia, his works had occasionally been blacklisted following Yugoslavia's dissolution in the 1990s, but were rehabilitated by the literary community. He is highly regarded in Serbia for his contributions to Serbian literature.
11 priča, objavljenih u periodu dužem od pola veka. Priča o vezirovom slonu pretpostavljam da se ne zaboravlja. Možda i Most na Žepi, kao nekakva priprema za Ćupriju i kao nešto što te tera da tražiš fotografije tog mosta.
Omiljene su mi ipak dve objavljene posthumno 1976. godine. Alipaša, na 15-ak strana govori o padu nekad velikog, cenjenog i uspešnog vezira. Interesantno je ispričana, u prvom licu ("Zastane malo pod mojim prozorom i izmenja sa mnom tiho nekoliko običnih reči. Diskretno me opominje da mu otvorim vrata moje priče i u njoj dam mesto koje mu pripada."), ali možda mi je takav utisak ostavila i zato što sam je čitao pred izbore 2022., pa zamišljao svakakve (pokazalo se nerealne) scenarije?
Priča (1976.) koristi sličnu narativnu foru - Ibrahim-efendija Škaro dolazi pripovedaču u goste i priča. Ali sam kraj te pričice na 7 strana... Kad Andrić pred svoju smrt napiše nešto ovako, samo srce od kamena ne može da ne pukne: "Tako mu je život prošao u priči, sav kao neka priča. Tako je i umro, posle navršene šezdesete godine, nečujno kao prepelica u žitu. [...] Nije živeo. Umesto takozvanog stvarnog života, čiji je udarac osetio još u majčinoj utrobi, sagradio je sebi drugu stvarnost, sačinjenu od priča. Tim pričama o onom što je moglo biti, a nikad nije bilo, i što je često istinitije i lepše od svega što je bilo, on kao da se zaklanjao od onog što je svakodnevno 'zaista' bivalo oko njega. Tako je izbegao život i prevario sudbinu."
Možda i najbolja Andrićeva zbirka iz ove serije tematskih zbirki. Knjiga sadrži ukupno 11 pripovetki iz različitih perioda Andrićevog života(od ranih priča poput "Put Alije Đerzeleza" do onih objavljenih posthumno, kao što je "Alipaša"). Andrićev pripovedački stil je, kao i uvek, fascinantan. Rečenice su tako pitke, a duboke; ideje koje teraju na razmišljanje javljaju se u naizgled "običnim" pasusima, a inteligentne i maštovite metafore za različita životna iskustva inspirišu čitaoca na svakoj stranici. Ovu zbirku pripovetki čitao sam u pauzama između čitanja fantastike i triler romana - kao oštar kontrast tim uzbudljivim ali često nevešto napisanim radnjama, svaka Andrićeva priča pisana je prelepim stilom i vodi čitaoca u neko sporije i drugačije vreme - vreme turske vladavine na Balkanu. Čini mi se da je ovo idealna postavka za svevremenske teme koje njegove priče, bez žurbe, predstavljaju autoru. Zbirka ima 11 pripovetki. Meni se lično, više sviđaju priče iz kasnijeg Andrićevog stvaralaštva. Priče su vrlo raznolike. Zabave radi, ovako bi ih rangirao: od meni lično najbolje pa nadalje: 1. Most na Žepi 2. Priča o vezirovom slonu 3. Alipaša 4. Priča 5. Trup 6. Za logorovanja 7. Mustafa Madžar 8. Put Alije Đerzeleza 9. Ruđanski begovi 10. Smrt u Sinanovoj tekiji 11. San Bega Karčića