Sarajevo, Exodus of a City

``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. (Nov.)