This remarkable second novel by Christoph Ransmayr, a young Austrian novelist, carries the conviction of an ominous dream, and it would be easy to find illustrations for its dreamlike transformations in Surrealist art. People and things are always under threat of transformation, as nature invades civilization and vegetation reclaims the houses, but not all the transformations are natural. Whole rows of houses appeared to be slowly reverting to mountainous coast.'' Both the place and its inhabitants are menaced by landslides, corrosion, corruption and dust. They were falling into ruin and vanishing beneath vines and moss. ''Of the town's ninety buildings, many stood empty at the time.

For knowledge of what happens elsewhere, Tomi depends on the gossip of refugees, on yellowing picture magazines and on movies brought to town by a traveling projectionist called Cyparis. Otherwise, its only contact with the world is by a coast road along which a rusting bus makes rare trips. Tomi is occasionally visited by tramp steamers.

For readers with some knowledge of ancient history, the names of these men and even the name of the town will be reminders that one of Rome's great poets suffered a similar exile, although this novel is set in modern times, not in the first century. In ''The Last World,'' a quest by a young man named Cotta for Naso, a writer in political exile, brings him to Tomi, a small iron-mining town on the coast of the Black Sea.

The last world christoph ransmayr