The Three-arched Bridge
ABOUT
THE BOOK
The Balkan peninsula, history’s long disputed bridge between Asia and Europe, towards the close of the Middle Ages. The receding Byzantine empire has left behind a patchwork of warring principalities and onto this exposed limb of Europe the expanding Ottoman empire has cast its eye. In the Spring of 1378 the construction of a bridge over a strategically important river is slowed by sabotage. A mason suspected of the crime is found one morning immured up to his collarbones under the first of the bridge’s three stone arches, his head and shoulders peering out through the plaster. But his will not be the last sacrifice on the bridge that breaches Europe’s last line of defence against the threat of Islam. The Three-Arched Bridge is a parable of the Balkans’ past and a profoundly relevant comment on one of the most intractable conflicts of our time. Ismail Kadare’s writings have been translated into over 20 languages. This is his second novel.
ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR John
Hodgson
John Hodgson, who was born in 1951, taught at the Universities of Pristina and Tirana after studying English literature at Cambridge and Newcastle. He has worked as a translator and interpreter at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. He has translated five novels by Ismail Kadare, including The Traitor’s Niche, and several works by Fatos Lubonja, including Second Sentence and The False Apocalypse. He lives in London.
John Hodgson, who was born in 1951, taught at the Universities of Pristina and Tirana after studying English literature at Cambridge and Newcastle. He has worked as a translator and interpreter at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. He has translated five novels by Ismail Kadare, including The Traitor’s Niche, and several works by Fatos Lubonja, including Second Sentence and The False Apocalypse. He lives in London.