Two Balkan Classics

Re-reading "The Bridge Over the Drina" by Ivo Andric, which is one of the great Balkan novels to put alongside Ismail Kadare's "Chronicle in Stone".

Both books make me think of the stone houses, buildings and bridges of the Zagori.

The deteriorating old stone han beside the bridge over the Drina is cared for by the administrator of a defunct bequest:

"Working devotedly, he had long become reconciled to the idea that our destiny on this earth lies in the struggle against decay, death and dissolution and that man must persevere in this struggle, even if it were completely in vain."

(tr. Lovett F. Edwards)