"A great stone bridge built three centuries ago in the heart of the Balkans ... stands witness to the countless lives played out upon it" and to the sufferings of the people of Bosnia.--Cover.
"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 fashion in various figures in the book, some of whom have already succumbed to its insidious influence, while even those who resist are marked by it. The third theme is a study of the effect upon an honest, unimaginative man of serving a dictatorship in which at first he sincerely believes but whose aims and methods he comes with growing horror to doubt. Last and central to all is the theme of Bosnia itself, the spirit of the land and its people and the problem of their rescue from the pit of ignorance, backwardness, and poverty into which history has plunged them." (Kenneth Johnstone, translator's note, page 11)
Set in the town of Travnik, Bosnian Chronicle presents the struggle for supremacy in a region that stubbornly refuses to submit to any outsider. The era is Napoleonic and the novel, both in its historical scope and psychological subtlety, Tolstoyan. In its portrayal of conflict and fierce ethnic loyalties, the story is also eerily relevant. Ottoman viziers, French consuls, and Austrian plenipotentiaries are consumed by an endless game of diplomacy and double-dealing: expansive and courtly face-to-face, brooding and scheming behind closed doors. As they have for centuries, the Bosnians themselves observe and endure the machinations of greater powers that vie, futilely, to absorb them. Ivo Andric's masterwork is imbued with the richness and complexity of a region that has brought so much tragedy to our century and known so little peace. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
"Explores the widespread ethnic cleansing that occurred in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 through 1995, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Serbs against Bosnian Muslims that fully meet the criteria for genocide established after World War II by the Genocide Convention of 1948...Contextualizes the East Bosnian program of atrocities with respect to broader scholarly debates about the nature of genocide."--Publishers website
A beautiful hardcover selection of the best works by one of the greatest short story writers in world literature During his most productive decade, the 1880s, the French writer Guy de Maupassant wrote more than three hundred stories, notably including "The Necklace," "Boule de Suif," "The Horla," and "Mademoiselle Fifi." Marked by the psychological realism that he famously pioneered, the stories selected here take us on a tour of the human experience—lust and love, revenge and ridicule, terror and madness. Many take place in the author's native Normandy, but the settings range farther abroad as well, from Brittany and Paris to Corsica and the Mediterranean coast, and as far as North Africa and India. Maupassant's remarkable psychological range and ability to evoke an entire world in a few pages have ensured that his stories have entertained generations of readers, and this volume of thirty-two of his most enduring masterpieces makes a perfect gift for any lover of classic fiction. Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket.
In the Balkan Peninsula, history’s long-disputed bridge between Asia and Europe, the receding Byzantine empire has left behind a patchwork of warring peoples who fight over everything, from their pastures of sheep to the authorship of their countless legends. One such gruesome tale declares that a castle under construction cannot be finished until a young mason’s bride has been walled up alive, one breast left exposed to suckle her growing infant even after her death. Myth becomes perverse reality when a mason is plastered into a bridge over a strategically important river, where his will not be the last human sacrifice.
One of India's most incredible and enviable cultural aspects is that every Indian is bilingual, if not multilingual. Delving into the fascinating early history of South Asia, this original book reveals how migration, both external and internal, has shaped all Indians from ancient times. Through a first-of-its-kind and incisive study of languages, such as the story of early Sanskrit, the rise of Urdu, language formation in the North-east, it presents the astounding argument that all Indians are of mixed origins.It explores the surprising rise of English after Independence and how it may be endangering India's native languages.