Black Butterflies
Priscilla Morris
Category: Historical Fiction,
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMENβS PRIZE 2023
SHORTLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 2023
SHORTLISTED FOR THE AUTHORSβ CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2023
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILBUR SMITH PRIZE 2023
SHORTLISTED FOR THE NOTA BENE PRIZE 2023
ββββββββββββ
Sarajevo, spring 1992. Each night, nationalist gangs erect barricades, splitting the diverse city into ethnic enclaves; each morning, the residents β whether Muslim, Croat or Serb β push the makeshift barriers aside.
When violence finally spills over, Zora, an artist and teacher, sends her husband and elderly mother to safety with her daughter in England. Reluctant to believe that hostilities will last more than a handful of weeks, she stays behind while the city falls under siege. As the assault deepens 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. Theirs is a breathtaking story of disintegration, resilience and hope.
Reviews
-
'Feels totally authenticβ¦ Along with human kindness,Β there is a quiet emphasis on the power of art:Β Zoraβs paintings, like the existence of this book, are testimony to the way that wars come and go but art goes on foreverβΒ The Sunday Times
-
'A lyrical, devastating and timely love letter to war-torn Sarajevo... There are moments of shocking brutality set against others of unexpected beauty and resilience. Exquisitely crafted, it pulses with tension: we couldnβt stop turning the pages'Β Rachel Joyce, Guardian
-
'A gripping, heartbreaking yet hopeful tale of human resilience, compassion, and the haunting devastations of war. A book that will stay with you for a long time' Cecile Pin, author of Wandering Souls
-
'An intensely evocative and deeply moving debutΒ β I held my breath as I readβΒ Ruth Gilligan, RSL Ondaatje Prize-winning author of The Butchers
-
βBeautifully written andΒ hauntingly evocative,Β Black ButterfliesΒ distils into a single consciousness a nationβs violent trauma and an artistβs sense of hope. Priscilla Morris has crafted aΒ rich and highly accomplished debutβΒ Sam Byers, author of Perfidious Albion
-
βIn thisΒ compelling and convincingΒ debut novel,Β Morris brilliantly evokes a world slipping, day by day, under the surface of the opaque waters of war.Β Dark and yet starkly beautiful,Β Black ButterfliesΒ is a narrative of how violence scars the soul of a city and its inhabitants. It is at once a testament to the victims and survivors of the Siege of Sarajevo, to the power of art and to Morris's skills as a storyteller, all the more keenly felt for the subtlety with which they are deployedβΒ Aminatta Forna, author of Happiness
-
βBlack ButterfliesΒ isΒ incredible, a must-read. There are few novels that stay with you after the final page is read, but this is one. Brutal yet also uplifting,Β immersiveΒ and real, it shows what the human spirit is capable of'Β Karen Angelico, author of Everything We Are
-
βAnΒ astonishingly goodΒ debut, chronicling one of the darkest times in global history.Β It reads so authenticallyΒ that I might assume it was a book in translation, albeit by an excellent translator. Like food and fuel in the Siege of Sarajevo, no word is wasted. Zoraβs story broke my heart, andΒ I hope it will open the hearts of all those who read itΒ to refugees, at a time when history is destined to repeat itselfβΒ Liz Nugent, author of Our Little Cruelties
-
βBlack ButterfliesΒ isΒ an elegy to the vibrant and inclusive society...Β This novel comes at an apt time, not just because it marks the thirtieth anniversary of the beginning of the Siege of Sarajevo, but because it testifies to the ease and speed with which things can fall apartβΒ Kevin Sullivan, author of The Longest Winter
-
'This is a dark novel, but one that wrests beauty and hope out of suffering. It is a work of literature that transforms horror and violence into a life force'Β New York Times
