The Three-Arched Bridge - Couverture souple

Kadare, Ismail

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1559707925 ISBN 13 : 9781559707923

Editeur : Arcade Publishing, 2005

Synopsis

Book by Ismail Kadare

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

The bards who stopped at the inn near the riverbank were forever being asked to sing the ballad of the three young masons, all brothers, who were fated never to complete the building of their wall until they had immured one of their wives in it.

In the year 1377, when the roadbuilders threatened to put the ferrymen out of business by building a stone bridge to carry the traffic between the Balkans and the rest of Europe, the legend was to become a grisly reality.

What the builders completed of the bridge by day was destroyed by night. Sabotage, said some. The vengeful spirits of the waters, said others. But once a man was taken to be immured, once he was plastered into a cavity of the first pier, the attacks on the bridge stopped, the two banks of the river had a permanent link. The first troops to cross the bridge were to be the vanguard of the Ottoman Turks advancing irresistably into Europe.

Many have described the retreat of Christendom after the fall of Constantinople, as Islam forced a passage westwards through the Balkans towards the European heartlands. Seldom, though, has the story been told so starkly, so hauntingly, as in this succinct fable of conflict, terror, dissention and superstition by Albania's most influential novelist.

Quatrième de couverture

‘An utterly captivating yarn: strange, vivid, ominous, macabre and wise’ New York Times

When the construction of a bridge built to link the Balkans to Europe is repeatedly and mysteriously sabotaged, an old ballad starts making the rounds at local taverns. The bards sing of a legend – a woman immured in a castle wall to prevent it from falling. Some say the bridge is being damaged by local ferrymen, others blame the vengeful water spirits. But this is a town where terror and superstition reign and a solution must be reached. So it is decreed: a willing person must be plastered into the bridge...

‘One of Europe's great writers’ Los Angeles Times

See also: The Concert

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Arcade Publishing
• Date d'édition: 2005
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1559707925
• ISBN 13: 9781559707923
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 192
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible