Sarajevo, Exodus of a City (Kodansha Globe) [Paperback]

Dzevad Karahasan (Author), Slobodan Drakulic (Translator), Slavenka Drakulic (Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Kodansha Globe | Publication Date: October 1994

In a moving personal account, Karahasan has composed an extraordinary meditation on Sarajevo, a pluralistic city whose founding embraced respect for religious, cultural, and ethnic diversity. While painting an elegiac portrait of the city, Karahasan recalls the prelude to war and the agonizing events that forced him to flee in 1993. A portion of the profits donated to humanitarian relief in Bosnia.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"I come from a destroyed country," writes Karahasan, a Bosnian Muslim, in this collection of short pieces that range from elegiac meditations on Sarajevo to reflections on adjusting to life with snipers and shelling. Although translated with a clunkiness that is sadly characteristic of many Eastern European works published here, Karahasan's account is often quietly devastating. Whether he is sketching the 500-year history of Sarajevo or describing the Hotel Europa-which he calls the "physical and semantic center" of the city, the nexus where the city's Turkish and Austro-Hungarian sectors meet-his observations are precise and compelling. Not convincing, however, is the lengthy "Literature and War," in which Karahsan claims that "bad literature, or misuse of the literary craft, is responsible" for the destruction of his country. In "An Argument with a Frenchman," the transcendental-minded Karahasan describes a frustrating meeting with a more practical-minded French visitor. In Karahasan's more detached and elliptical analytical forays, even the most interested readers may sympathize with the Frenchman, unable to understand the Karahasan's plight or that of his country.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The literature of outrage continues to pour forth from Bosnia and the rest of the former Yugoslavia. These two new books offer poignant personal essays on the destruction of a civilized and once-hopeful region. Debeljak, an important Slovenian poet, combines philosophical detachment and eyewitness experience in his analysis of the Yugoslavian tragedy. He recalls a time of hope and change in the early 1980s but now holds little hope for rebirth of multiculturalism and tolerance in his country. Karahasan's memoir of life inside the doomed city of Sarajevo is an extraordinarily powerful appeal to the Western world. Using a technique similar to that of Zlato Dizdarevic in Sarajevo: A War Journal (LJ 12/93), Karahasan, a Bosnian Muslim playwright, presents a series of unforgettable vignettes of daily life, interwoven with historical commentary. He, too, mourns the loss of tolerance and pluralism in his land. In an afterword, Slavenka Drakuli'c (Balkan Express, LJ 4/15/93) compares his approach to Primo Levi's writings on the Holocaust. Both books are highly recommended for public and academic libraries.
Thomas A. Karel, Franklin & Marshall Coll. Lib., Lancaster, Pa.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 123 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha America (October 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568360576
• ISBN-13: 978-1568360577
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,132,763 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bizarre, yet moving memoir, October 13, 2000

By 

"ragamala78" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sarajevo, Exodus of a City (Kodansha Globe) (Paperback)

I must agree with most everything I've read about Dzevad Karahasan's book. This is not what one would expect to read from someone living in a city under siege, especially given other facts of personal tragedies he mentions in the book.

Karahasan, is a Bosnian Muslim that is married to a Serbian woman. As the city is getting shelled and is occupied by Serbian forces, one is thrown off balance by Karahasan's cool recollection of events and anecdotes. Of particular interest is his exchange with a French humanitarian worker. It just shows how two people, through their individual circumstances, can have a difficult time understanding one another.

This book is frighteningly honest. The author is never shy about his disenchantment or his occasional thoughts of suicide. Even with that, this is not a depressing book. More than anything, I think it shows how war just sucks the soul and life out of some people. Its like they don't even have the energy to be angry at their aggressors anymore. They just want out.

One aspect I certainly wasn't expecting when I picked up this book was the literary criticism. Karahasan was a professor at the University of Sarajevo who taught drama and literature. The book criticizes much modern literature as empty academia. He asserts that while war is destruction and chaos, that things like literature are one of the few civilizing factors in wartime, and that writers have a lot of responsibility.

The first chapter is quite awkward, but after that, the book really picks up. At 123 pages, this book is an easy read. For a portrait of life during wartime and for a heavy handed criticism of much of what passes for literature today, this is an excellent book. Even saying what I've said about it, this description doesn't fully capture the scope of this book. It is very hard to describe fully what the author is trying to accomplish, because he goes about it in an odd manner. That being said, pick up this short little book and be prepared to be moved.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stark and moving, September 14, 2000

By 

EriKa "E" (Iceland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sarajevo, Exodus of a City (Kodansha Globe) (Paperback)

I read this book a few years ago, so forgive me if I don't remember all the pertinent details. I can say that this book was incredibly moving with its vivid descriptions of Sarajevo as it once was and as it was during the war. Sarajevo as a city was a victim, and its people were onlookers suffering along with the city. The book is surprising in that it tells the story of the city from the perspective of a resident. One would expect a book of this type (and the time frame in which is was written) to be more a memoir about the way of life that was lost or about the horrors of war. No, the book is more an elegy for the city of Sarajevo and a voice of hope for what the city could be again.

This is one of the books that is not easily described but must be read and absorbed personally to fully appreciate its craft.