To what depths can a soul descend when a father's dying wish becomes a lifelong curse of greed?

In The Woman from Sarajevo (Gospođica), Nobel laureate Ivo Andrić completes his renowned "Bosnian Trilogy," published alongside The Bridge on the Drina and Bosnian Chronicle in 1945. Moving between the shifting landscapes of Sarajevo and Belgrade during the first three decades of the twentieth century, this novel offers a chilling psychological portrait of a life hollowed out by obsession.

The story centers on Raika Radaković, a spinster whose existence is dominated by a single, all-consuming passion: stinginess. Haunted by her bankrupt father’s final plea to guard their property, she transforms from a grieving daughter into a ruthless miser in a classical Gogolian style. In her feverish quest for financial security, Raika rejects love, friendship, and humanity, viewing the world solely through the cold lens of profit and loss.

Andrić masterfully juxtaposes Raika’s solitary, withered existence against a sweeping historical backdrop. As the Austro-Hungarian Empire crumbles, World War I rages, and a new Yugoslav state emerges, Raika remains isolated, her life drifting like flotsam amidst the torrent of social and economic change. Even a fleeting resemblance to a beloved relative cannot permanently thaw her frozen heart.

Written with the precision of a modern classic, The Woman from Sarajevo is a tragic exploration of alienation. It stands as a powerful study of a woman enslaved by money, finding only a cold, lonely "security" in a world she neither understands nor trusts.