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.
Maestralno. Izdvajam dijelove iz pripovjetke "Zeko":
"Glavno je da se od misli i odluka pređe na delo i izvršenje, i tako zatvori spasonosni krug i jednom zauvek raskrsti sa jalovim i nedostojnim životom, da se nađe stopa čvrsta tla na kom se može raditi i biti čovek."
"Misao koja se ustali u čoveku i nađe oslonca u njegovom karakteru, to je ono što čini čoveka malim ili velikim."
"Velike stvari se teško kazuju, ali se lako naslućuju, pogotovu kad čovek ima za sabesednika stvorenje koje, samo govori malo, a savršeno ume da sluša i shvati drugoga."
"Samoća letnjeg popodneva u hladovitom praznom stanu činila mu se beskrajna, nepodnošljiva. Osećao je kako mu bije krv u ručnim zglobovima i na potiljku, kako se taj nemir širi po celom telu, pa prenosi na stvari oko njega."
"Tolika je snaga u njoj i tolika volja da komanduje, steže, kroti i savija, da bi puk vojske bio malo za tu snagu. A kako joj je sudbina dala uzak krug nad kojim može da vlada, to stradaju oni koji su u tom krugu — njena mala porodica od muža i sina, i stanari ove kuće — jer je na njih legao sav teret te njene snage i te besne volje za komandovanjem."
"On je nekako naročito bezazleno i neupadljivo prolazio svuda i uvek je izgledao kao da je sada došao i kao da će sada otići."
"Ostaje samo jedno objašnjenje. To je — društveno prokletstvo, voljno i trajno služenje svemu onom što je sebično i sitno u čoveku, i najniže i najbeznačajnije u životu. Prokletstvo tričavog svakidašnjeg života, koji je postao sam sebi svrhom, prokletstvo gore od mnogog greha i poroka. Eto, to je objašnjenje, ako objašnjenja može da bude.”
"I prvi put u životu on sa radosnim čuđenjem oseti da je svaki čovek sposoban za otpor i udarac.”
"U toj kući, mnogo skromnije nameštenoj od njegove, sve je bilo nekako lakše, lepše i slobodnije. Čaj je bio bolji, kolači ukusniji, reči vedrije."
"A trebalo je samo preći preko utvrđenih navika, i osloboditi se straha i obzira, i malo smelije zakoračiti preko praznine koja deli jedan ispust od drugoga. To su te ne velike a spasonosne smelosti koje mi nikad ne umemo da učinimo u pravo vreme."
"Ovakva velika opšta stradanja dovode ljude u strašne i teške položaje u kojima su im pomoć i uteha drugog čoveka preko potrebne, a upravo ta strahota i tegoba sprečavaju ih da jedan drugom budu od pomoći i utehe."
"Bila je i živa i vedra kao i nekad, predana deci, bez traga one preterane i nametljive materinske brižnosti koja se tako često susreće kod čestitih i ograničenih građanskih žena, kao neka vrsta suzbijene i izvitoperene koketarije."
Odlična selekcija pripovedaka! Iako opisuju događaje iz različitih istorijskih epoha, raspoloženja, razmišljanja, izazovi i sudbine su i dalje aktuelni i mogli bi se odigravati i u današnjem vremenu. Priča o vezirovom slonu omiljena, i Zeko koja čitaoca upućuje u svakodnevicu života u okupiranom Beogradu tokom II Svetskog rata.
Interesantan odabir pripovedaka među kojima je i nekoliko većih i poznatijih: Mustafa Madžar, Priča o vezirovom slonu, Nemirna godina, Bife Titanik i Zeko.