The slow and sonorous cadence of Andric's prose echoes through the novel as he depicts the history of a bridge on the river Drina, from its ignominious beginnings in the imagination of a madcap Vizier, to the brutal creation under the vituperative auspices of the Ottoman Empire, to its gradual fusion with the land in the psyche of the people until it becomes a part of the town, its foundations fused with the bones of its inhabitants and its roads the stage for so many of its stories. 

In many ways the road comes to symbolise the years or oppression suffered by Bosnia-from the Ottoman Empire to the Austro-Hungarian, the bridge bears witness to the hundreds of years of oppression which Bosnians had suffered. The leads to Andric's severe, almost Biblical narrative style, as he narrates the history of the people who populated the area surrounding the bridge. After a while this can become jarring, especially as Andric describes the history of the bridge at breakneck speed and there is something fundamentally unreal about the characters he depict, whether it be peasants maddened with the fervour of patriotism or the Ottoman officials who are willing to sacrifice peoples lives to get the bridge built. In many ways this is reflective of the violence which permeated the region for hundreds of years.

'The Bridge on the Drina' is a unique, if at times heavy-going, description of a bridge which comes to symbolise both the oppression and enduring strength of the Bosnians under the lode of hundreds of years of imperial subjugation.

Bir köprü üzerinden eski yugoslavya toprakları ve balkanların yüzyıllardır yaşadığı tarihi olguyu bağımsız öykülerle anlatıyor Andriç. Asırlardır değişen bir şey yok, müslüman-hristiyan, sırp-boşnak kavgası yer, şahıs, dönem değiştirse de özünde hep aynı. Daha doğrısu din ve etnik milliyetçilik üzerinden berilen bir savaş. Komşunun komşuya, sevgililerin birbirine acımasızca saldırdığı bir savaş. Romanı okuyunca kısa bir süre önce yaşanan Yugoslavya iç savaşını daha iyi anlayacak, ve tarihin akışı içinde bugünkü sukunetin birgün mutlaka bozulacağını, eski olayları güncel versiyonuyla yeniden göreceğinizi hissedeceksiniz.