Ivo Andrić

"The book has four main themes. The first is the purely historical and political theme of Bosnia as the background of intrigue between Napoleonic France and Imperial Austria, each represented by its Consul and each trying to win over to its side the Turk, who at heart is equally hostile to both. The second theme is that of the gradually disintegrating effect of the East on western Europeans who have to live there: this is worked out in a masterly...

"In 1935 Raika Radakovich died in Belgrade on Stishka Street, No. 16 A, of natural causes. Case dismissed- by the police, but not by the Nobel-prize winning Yugoslavian who reconstructs her life into this novel. A miserly old maid with one obsession, to make a million, Miss Radakovich starts out to avenge her ruined father's death by living in the "world of money." She husbanded capital happily in Sarajevo from 1906 until 1919, when money was suddenly...