Travnička hronika, Na Drini ćuprija, Gospođica, Prokleta avlija
„Ja sam na putovanja trošio ne samo novac i vreme nego i snagu živaca i mašte, jer u putovanja treba uračunati i duge, uglavnom izlišne pripreme u mašti i u stvarnosti... A koliko sam se u tim putovanjima trošio, vidi se najbolje po tome što sam za vreme dva velika rata (1914–1918. i 1941–1944), kada sam bio prisiljen da sedim na jednom mestu, napisao gotovo najveći deo svojih radova.“ Ivo Andrić
U mladu jugoslovensku književnost posle Prvog svetskog rata Ivo Andrić je ušao kao zapažena pesnička pojava zbirkama Ex Ponto i Nemiri, koje je uglavnom napisao tokom godina tamnovanja u šibenskom i mariborskom zatvoru 1914–1915, potom u vreme konfinacije u Zenici i Ovčarevu do 1917. i najzad tokom lečenja u zagrebačkoj Bolnici milosrdnih sestara do kraja rata i ujedinjenja južnoslovenskih naroda.
Pošto je u periodu između dva rata, uglavnom putujući i seljakajući se po Evropi kao diplomata Kraljevine Jugoslavije, objavljivao samo pripovetke, tokom Drugog svetskog rata, u tišini svoje iznajmljene samačke sobe u Prizrenskoj ulici u Beogradu, napisao je svoja tri od ukupno četiri romana, Travničku hroniku (završen aprila 1942), Na Drini ćupriju (završen decembra 1943) i Gospođicu (decembra 1943 – oktobra 1944). Roman-novelu Prokleta avlija objavio je 1954. godine.
Za svoj celokupni opus Andrić je 1961. godine dobio Nobelovu nagradu za književnost, „za epsku snagu“, kako stoji u obrazloženju o dodeli nagrade, „kojom je oblikovao motive i sudbine iz istorije svoje zemlje.“
Osim što su složene i duboke književne studije različitih događaja i junaka sa balkanske istorijske pozornice od srednjeg veka do drugog svetskog rata, ova remek-dela srpske književnosti istovremeno su i trajni literarni spomenik gradovima Travniku, Višegradu, Beogradu i Istanbulu, koji su uglavnom bili žarišne tačke Andrićevog života i čitavog njegovog pripovednog dela.
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.