Black Butterflies: SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE 2023

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I felt disconnected from the characters - they weren't well-fleshed out and I didn't feel like I really knew them. But it is more than this: without sentimentality, it examines political and philosophical questions that come abruptly to the fore when the inhabitants of a modern city are starved and shot. Black Butterflies is definitely an eye-opening read as it is premised on a European historical backdrop in 1992 that I am not familiar with: the Breakup of Yugoslavia, the Bosnian War, and the Siege of Sarajevo. Payments made using National Book Tokens are processed by National Book Tokens Ltd, and you can read their Terms and Conditions here. Sarajevo has always been multicultural—its people living and mixing harmoniously, most families mixed—most celebrating the festivals of all cultures.

The author depicts the complexities of war that includes turning neighbor against neighbor, making difficult decisions to leave or stay, caring for strangers, family, and friends, waking up one day as a refugee, loyalty to neighborhood and homeland, friends and acquaintances of different ethnicities are suddenly enemies, separation of families, etc.It’s why the obliteration of cultural sites within the city and along with it the destruction of books, works of art and Zora’s studio has such a devastating effect on her. Dark and yet starkly beautiful, Black Butterflies is a narrative of how violence scars the soul of a city and its inhabitants.

When even the haven of her studio is taken away from her, she’s reduced to the bare bones of existence, with just a few beloved neighbours to keep her spirits up. Shortlisted for this year's Women's Prize, Black Butterflies is a beautifully written debut novel that tells the haunting and terrifying story of the siege of Sarajevo. The story is a harrowing one, but there are also glimmers of hope throughout, through new love, painting, community gatherings, and dinner parties. It also does a wonderful job examining what makes life worth living at all, including the power of human connection and the transcendence of art. The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report.I wasn’t much familiar with the details of these events except for a skeletal knowledge of the war having taken place.

The characters, the setting, and story will draw you in, close you into the dark and narrow confines of a hiding place where characters become a family of circumstance. It signifies the destruction of the last comfort and refuge that the citizens of Sarajevo have during the siege. I knew I had to read this book but had mixed feelings in my mind as I have a lot of mixed memories - but I am SO glad I read it. I wrote my debut novel BLACK BUTTERFLIES (2022) to understand the siege that devastated Sarajevo from 1992-1996.

She teaches Creative Writing at University College Dublin and currently lives between Ireland and Spain. In its story of a diverse, peaceful community transformed by nationalism into a place of fear, death and destruction, it’s impossible to read Black Butterflies without thinking of the current war in Ukraine and, in particular, the siege of Mariupol. The human interest element revolves around a talented painter, and her fascination with the bridges of Sarajevo (Goats bridge in particular) is well described.

As the city falls under siege and everything they love is laid to waste, black ashes floating over the rooftops, Zora and her friends are forced to rebuild themselves, over and over.Zora must cope with much—the struggle for survival, the pain of watching the city she loves being torn to pieces around her, her art that she lives for and through which she expresses herself destroyed, separation from her family (whom she needs more than ever at these times), grappling with the question of leaving versus staying, and really also wondering about the war itself which makes no sense. Black Butterflies is an elegy to the vibrant and inclusive society that was subjected to a murderous assault in 1992. Reluctant to believe that hostilities will last more than a handful of weeks, she stays behind while the city falls under siege. In the darkness of the war people beseiged in Sarajevo still try to lead their lives sharing what little they have holding onto friendship, love, and of course art!