Evakuacija: izbor suvremene priče autora iz Bosne i Hercegovine

The collection includes a total of 32 stories by contemporary Bosnian and Herzegovinian authors written between 1987 and 1998. The authors included in the collection write about displacement, loss of home, identity and continuity of life, focusing on the fates of “small” people caught in the vortex of historical events that they cannot control.

The central motif of evacuation does not refer exclusively to the physical abandonment of space, but also to the internal withdrawal of the characters: emotional numbness, fear, a sense of temporaryity and existential insecurity. The characters are often refugees, exiles or people who have remained in devastated environments, forced to live between memories of the past and the uncertain present.

Stylistically, the stories are realistic, linguistically restrained and emotionally precise, without pathos or overt moralizing. The authors use fragmentary narration, short scenes and suggestive details to evoke the atmosphere of war and post-war experience. Humor is rare, but sometimes present in a black, bitter form.

Evacuation is an important literary document of contemporary Bosnian-Herzegovinian prose, as it bears witness to the traumas of war, but also to universal issues of belonging, memory, and the possibility of a new beginning after a disaster.