Black Butterflies vividly details the costs of war, the extent of destruction, and survival strategies for people who are caught in it. Through the experiences of Zora and others like her who remain in the city – increasingly not by inclination but due to the impossibility of doing anything else – the reader witnesses what it was like to live (although ‘exist’ might be a better world) through what became known as the siege of Sarajevo. Dark and yet starkly beautiful, Black Butterflies is a narrative of how violence scars the soul of a city and its inhabitants. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Initially we see her painting its bridges and landscapes—and later the destruction and fires that take over the city.

Zora's art is not only a source of engagement and comfort for her during those difficult times but also provides readers a brief glimpse into the folklore and historical Ottoman architecture of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Inspired by family history, the siege of Sarajevo is seen through the eyes of artist and teacher Zora. The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network. I was appreciative of an opportunity to read about a period in history I knew absolutely nothing about. Payments made using National Book Tokens are processed by National Book Tokens Ltd, and you can read their Terms and Conditions here.Left on her own, she spends her time painting her favorite bridges and landscapes in her studio on the top floor of the Vijećnica (Town Hall), teaching and hoping for better days. She knows all its alleys and courtyards, all its scents and sounds—the way the light falls at the end of their street in wintertime, the rattle of the tram, the blowsy roses that bloom each June in the mosque gardens, the plums and fogs in the autumn, the ponderous old men playing chess in the cafés, the mahalas—the old neighbourhoods—that radiate from the centre like the spiral of a snail’s shell. The little contact she had with her family on the telephone too comes to an end, when lines are cut off.

The devastation of the war - the death, the hunger, the destruction of the city, the freezing cold of winter with no heat, and more - plays out on these pages.

I would have appreciated a brief note at the end on the facts behind the cause of the war and the political climate at the time, just like the facts behind the ethnic groups were clarified in the author’s note. Each night, nationalist gangs erect barricades, splitting the diverse city into ethnic enclaves; each morning, the residents – whether Muslim, Croat or Serb – push the makeshift barriers aside. Also highlighted is The Vijecnica, site of the University and (in) famous scene of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914. Morris gets us to experience every little emotion with Zora—the shock, the hurt, the cold, the hunger, also the few moments of comfort or happiness snatched amidst it all. It's been a long time since then and I thought I'd had my fill until this novel by Priscilla Morris came along with its enticing cover, for the 30th anniversary of the siege.

Like Zora we find ourselves disbelieving and baffled at the collapse of the world she knows, and with her we discover who she really is.Black Butterflies succeeds in showing how societies – and individual citizens – can indeed slide from safety to siege. All of these are represented fairly in the story through characters coming from various ethnic identities. Drawing on her own family history, Morris has crafted an absorbing story set in Sarajevo in 1992, the first year of the Bosnian War.

Published in May 2022 to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the start of the almost-four-year assault, this is Priscilla’s debut novel. The term "Black Butterflies" is used to describe the "burnt fragments of poetry and art catching in people's hair". I may have been raised at the height of ‘the troubles’ in Northern Ireland but I have no concept of life in a war zone.

In particular, I was inspired by the stories of my great-uncle’s loss of his art studio during the war. The best contemporary novel I have read for a long while and also chillingly resonant with the scenes unfolding in Ukraine. Indeed, her experiences bring about a change in her art, transforming her style into something more experimental than the landscapes she produced before. The title has a special significance in the story, and this gets revealed only about the midway mark in a distressing event. While things are difficult and there are small obstacles she must face, Zora begins to enjoy the solitude and the chance it gives her to engage in her painting.