Books: The Voice of the Oppressed

THE VIZIER'S ELEPHANT (247 pp.)—Ivo Andric—Harcourt, Brace & World ($4.75).

DEVIL'S YARD (137 pp.)—Ivo Andric—Grove ($3.95).

Few regions in the world have known so little freedom as Bosnia, now part of Yugoslavia. For centuries it was brutally governed by the Turks of the Ottoman Empire. When the Turks were driven out toward the end of the last century, the Austrians moved in for 40 years. The Nazis took over in 1941, and the Communists in 1945, each adding its own refinement to the art of oppression. Out of this blood-soaked, soul-scarred land, a writer...