Kniha popisuje osudy bosenského lidu během napoleonské expanze kdy byla Bosna ještě divokou zaostalou zemí ovládanou zástupci tureckého sultána.

This one just saddens me. I loved Bridge on the Drina and was looking forward to this. But it is nothing like that book. It is a unending series of long character sketches, follwed by the backstory, followed by an episode placing the person in their current life and predicament. Then we start again with another individual’s character sketch, backstory, current episode. The book takes place in Travnik in the early 18s, during Napoleon’s reign in France and the political (and other) struggles over this part of the world. The main characters are the French and Austrian consuls in Travnik, but the cast of characters is very large. People appear, occupy center stage briefly, and then disappear, often forever. (I must make clear: I have quit reading after only a few hundred pages--about half the book.) While I don’t object to the way Andrić has constructed the book, it’s a poor job of stitching it all together. It reads more like an student's set of (extremely well-written) assignments strung together largely. After several hundred pages of reading this kind of thing, over and over, I have little interest in reading any more. Fortunately, Andrić was a prolific author and there are plenty more of his works on the shelf. I’m looking forward to finding something to take away the disappointment of this one. ( )

Estamos en el momento álgido de las guerras napoleónicas. Un diplomático francés, Jean Daville, es enviado a Travnik, una pequeña ciudad perdida entre las montañas de Bosnia, como cónsul. La novela es el relato de su estancia allí entre 1806 y 1814, dando ocasión para ofrecernos un fresco de ese tiempo convulso en el que por primera vez los Balcanes se abren a Occidente. Alrededor de la pequeña ciudad, donde también se ha asentado el cónsul austríaco, la política napoleónica se escribe con fuego y sangre mientras que los dos cónsules, perdidos en el pequeño territorio de Bosnia, verán cómo sus ambiciones y juventud naufragan y se asfixian en medio de una comunidad arcaica, contradictoria e impenetrable. Un paisaje humano en el que se entrecruzan imágenes de un mundo casi medieval con el desasosiego de las mujeres europeas y con las vidas cotidianas de los actores involuntarios de la pequeña historia: comerciantes, burócratas, artesanos, campesinos.

Bosnian Chronicle is set in the small Bosnian town of Travnik, during the Napoleonic wars. People from four religions live in Travnik - Jews who were banished from Spain 300 years ago, and still try to maintain their Spanish traditions; Orthodox Christians, mainly Serbian; Muslims, called Turks even though they are native Bosnians; Catholics. Bosnia is part of the Ottoman Empire, ruled by the Sultan in Istanbul who is represented in Travnik by the Vizier.

The Ottoman empire is in decline. It has lost its Hungarian territories to the Austrians, and Serbia is in revolt against Ottoman rule. As Napoleon endeavours to establish an alliance with the Ottomans, a French consulate is set up in Travnik. To counter French influence, the Austrians set up a consulate as well. Andric describes the lives and characters of the consuls, Europeans stranded in the Levant among alien people and customs, carrying out diplomatic duties that change with their countries' shifting alliances.

There are so many layers, so much to think about. Absolutely worth the effort. ( )

Bosnian Chronicle is concerned with the lives of a French consul and two Austrian consuls in Travnik, Bosnia from 1807 to 1814 during the Empire reign of Napolean. The novel is full of rich descriptions of the Bosnian countryside and its inhabitants, the religious tensions among the Christians, Moslems and Jews, the constant conflict with Serbia and life under the ruling Turks.
Detailed portraits of the main characters leave the reader feeling all the loneliness, fears, hopes and frustrations of being a foreigner living in a politically unstable Bosnia at the time.
I liked this book mostly because: 1. I like historical fiction and this is the first novel I read that takes place in the Balkans. 2. The author's descriptive writing style draws you into the lives of the characters and gives you a real sense of place and history. ( )