The Balkan Express: Fragments from the Other Side of War

In 18 short, spontaneous, lyrical dispatches from the former Yugoslavia, Croatian journalist Drakulic ( How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed ) conveys the horror of war and its shattering impact on the lives of ordinary people. Written between April 1991 and May 1992, the selections include an interview with a youth who joins the Croatian Guards for ``mop up'' operations, a report from the battle front, the author's visit with her nervous, widowed mother and an account of her train ride on the Balkan Express from Vienna, where she consoles her own exiled daugther, back into the heart of the war. Drakulic proposes a number of reasons for the ongoing bloodbath: Yugoslavs under Tito failed to build a political underground, and the country never had a chance to become a civil society as a foundation for democratic institutions. ``We traded our freedom for Italian shoes,'' she remarks, meaning that under communist rule people made ``a kind of contract with the regime,'' forgoing resistance in exchange for travel privileges and shopping excursions abroad. First serial to the New York Times Magazine. (May)