Black ButterFly

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Zora is a landscape artist, obsessed with painting bridges. Following a period of ill health for her mother, Zora urges her husband and her mother to go to England to visit Zora's daughter and granddaughter. Gradually it becomes clear that what they envisage will be a temporary separation becomes something altogether more permanent as Zora is trapped in Sarajevo, a city surrounded. Neighbours and friends of differing nationalities (the author prefers this term to ethnicities) come together to survive through the toughest of times in this tale of humanity, art, community and what it takes to survive.

This is for you if you are pulled towards survival stories, poetic writing, and the kind of novel that humanizes headlines.There is a strong underlying theme of bridges, which is so ironic in a war story. Zora’s specialty is painting bridges. Her latest artwork is set around one of the main bridges of the city. Some folk stories within the narrative are set around bridges. And yet, all the bridges between Sarajevo and the outside world have been destroyed by the war, as have the internal metaphorical bridges between the different ethnic groups. Also, another poem named Similarities reminded me of a my dearst friend so I just had to stop take a picture and send it to her. The author has researched her book well and it shows in the detailed and precise penning of incidents and feelings.

Characterization is what makes a book transcend storytelling and move into a memorable experience. As a member of the US military in the 1990s, I was part of the teams that were involved the war. So, I can honestly say this book is very accurate knowledge that I have of the situation, even though it is a novel – – historical fiction. stars. ( Yes, I said 4.25 here earlier today, but it’s a debut novel, and it is still in my mind after the entire day has passed by. It deserves more!) Drawing on her own family history, Morris has crafted an absorbing story set in Sarajevo in 1992, the first year of the Bosnian War. Zora, a middle-aged painter, has sent her husband, Franjo, and elderly mother off to England to stay with her daughter, Dubravka, confident that she’ll see out the fighting in the safety of their flat and welcome them home in no time. But things rapidly get much worse than she is prepared for. Phone lines are cut off, then the water, then the electricity. “ We’re all refugees now, Zora writes to Franjo. We spend our days waiting for water, for bread, for humanitarian handouts: beggars in our own city.”This is the third book in my quest to read all of the shortlisted books for this year's Women's Prize for Fiction. The book is marked as literary fiction but it is more of a commercial historical fiction. This didn’t make any difference to me this time but to those who expect a book to cater to its advertised genre, this could be a minor problem. A few years after the event/s I became quite obsessed with the rolling wars that brought about the end of the former Yugoslavia, and read about it voraciously, but it was always the siege of Sarajevo that made my heart hurt the most. 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. Morris's story is based upon the real life experience of older members of her own family, and I think it's an essential additional to the canon. It covers the first 10 months, and while it doesn't shy away from the horror and desperation, it also provides an insight to the warmth and humanity of the multicultural populace, trying to go about their ordinary lives under extraordinary circumstances. Rachel Atkins' narration is excellent.

In her twenties, when she returned home from her six years in Paris and Belgrade, she realised she couldn't live anywhere else. And now, she wants to stay in the city she loves as it's shaken, to see things through. Content Consideration: If you are negatively affected by the coverage of conditions in Ukraine, you might need to know that some content in this book is similar. The siege of Sarajevo is told through the eyes of Serbian artist, Zora Kocovic,as she witnesses her city crumble from the shelling of snipers in the mountains surrounding Sarajevo. Her apartment building, art studio (which sits above the library), are obliterated by the incessant bombing. The most devastating results in the death of innocent children and adults murdered while attempting to lead their “normal” and ordinary lives. Everything is better when done together. The taste of food and water, the touch when they hug each other hello. They’ve made it through one more day, each reunion a confirmation that they’re still alive.”Chaos, love, stars, explosion, fire, losing yourself, strangers, feel, burn, exist, and the world. There are some really good poems in here that I found enchanting, but after awhile, it loses its magic, becomes repetitive. I don't know if it is my copy, but I found commas in awkward places (idk, it's turning into a pet peeve). Speaking of awkward, the "spaces" (you know, I love teaching as well as writing and teach creative writing at University College Dublin. I have a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and read Social Anthropology at Cambridge University. War couldn’t happen here in Sarajevo. Not here where everyone loved each other, she’d told herself with the simplicity of a child.” In a Nutshell: An enlightening and traumatising fictional account of a war I wasn’t much aware of – the Bosnian war of the early 1990s. Well-researched, well-written, bitter-sweet.

There are many situations in the book that will show you a side of war you have hardly ever seen in fiction. Some scenes create a claustrophobic feeling; others are way too disquieting. The story hits hard on your emotions. The writing enhances the impact. Sample this line written by Zora in a letter: “We're all refugees now. We spend our days waiting for water, for bread, for humanitarian handouts: beggars in our own city.” Beautifully written, Lovely illustrated. I honestly would recommend this to all those who have lost their inner love for poetry, who have lost someone so dear, who is still searching for themselves and cant find the right words to describe their situation.Have you ever heard of such a thing? A human chain to rescue books. A moment of coming together, of resistance. But what good did it do? They say almost two million documents burnt in there. First editions, rare manuscripts, land records, newspaper archives. Our heritage destroyed in a night. Priscilla Morris took me inside the siege of Sarajevo through the eyes of Zora Kocovic, a Bosnian Serb painter, who finds herself trapped in the Bosnian capital and survives to escape during the bitter winter of 1992. As the situation worsens, Zora wants to reunite with husband and she tries to finds way to escape. As this is a historically accurate book, it’s interesting to see how people escaped Sarajevo and made their way into safer countries. The writing captivating. The art a reflection of the beauty Sarajevo had before the war. The landscape; the bridges; the people. Many words that have wide range of explanation. I'm pretty sure that every person that reads this book will have a different meaning to it, a different explanation, a different memory!