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Notes -
The Bridge over the Drina
By far the best book I have ever come across for depicting the human side of Balkan/Ottoman history and just an incredible series of observations about the human nature, societies, change, continuity and modernization. Serves as a great account of an already complex and developed civilization's contact with the Western culture, which is a phenomenon often overlooked in modern narratives in spite confrontations in Africa/America/Australia where the civilization levels were much more mismatched and there is a clear dynamic of conquerer/conquered.
Also written wonderfully and doesn't bore one at all. Won its author a Nobel prize in literature and a seat in the (communist) Yugoslav parliament even though he wasn't really a communist at all. Throughly recommended.
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