Priscilla Morris

Black Butterflies: the Exquisitely Crafted Debut Novel that Captures Life Inside the Siege of Sarajevo

sina (she/her) 

The war goes on for years. It turns out that she got out at the start, though in Sarajevo the first year was the worst in terms of death and destruction. The mosque in Banja Luka is torn down. Mostar Bridge is destroyed. People are shelled queuing for bread at Markale marketplace. Concentration camps are uncovered. Rape camps. Over half the population is displaced, and the word 'genocide' is used. Srebrenica.

'There's only death here,' Mirsad said last night. 'There's death everywhere,' Zora replied.

Jemima Scott

Sometimes, just before dawn, she dreams of black butterflies, their charred wings opening and closing as they drift down in their hundreds and thousands, alighting on her cheeks, her eyes, her mouth.

I think this is the first book I read being set during the war in Bosnia and the siege of Sarajevo specifically. It's a powerful story of a woman and her neighbours, barely surviving in a city cut off from everything. Cried at the end of it, so what more can you ask for? 

Black Butterflies: the Exquisitely Crafted Debut Novel that Captures Life Inside the Siege of Sarajevo

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