Black Butterflies is literary fiction but reads almost like a memoir. It takes you to Sarajevo in 1992 real time through the eyes of Zora, an artist and tutor who along with her neighbours experiences the brunt of the siege. This siege, by some Serbs, surrounded what had been a wonderful multi-ethic, highly cultured society. A society none expected would turn into a war zone.

The language the author uses is incredible in both its beauty and its harshness. It’s also immersive. I was in Sarajevo, and it is rare a book has so much power to transport me in such a multi-sensory way. The horror, the moments of lightness, the unremitting awfulness of losing almost everything… no work, no food, no power, no water… while being under fire. It all became absolutely real and that is an incredible talent.

I guessed early on that the author had access to first hand accounts and this proved to be the case. Although fictional, Black Butterflies is a melding of two family stories, and the experiences of a larger number of people, but skilfully woven together they make a unified whole.

A word of warning though; if you are particularly anxious about the situation in Ukraine, this isn’t the time to read this book. However if you would prefer to think on how conflicts do end, how people come out of the other side and go on to lead normal lives, then do.

Published to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the start of the Siege of Sarajevo (1992–96)
Sheer escapism, beautifully written, I will look for more of this author’s work.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this title. I highly recommend it.

Black Butterflies tells the story of Zora, an artist living in Sarajevo when the Bosnian war breaks out in 1992. The piece of historical fiction is beautifully written, Zora's story is both heartbreaking and full.of hope and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Whilst the Bosnian war took place during my lifetime, I was too young to remember it clearly and everything I know about it, I have learned through books. Black Butterflies marks the 30th anniversary but as I read the story, there are times it is hard to believe this was only 30 years ago. The book spans the first year of war, as the siege begins and through that first frozen winter. Zora is a wonderful protagonist, relatable, full.of empathy but flawed too and I respected the way Morris told her story without romanticising war. It is a tale of community and hope through adversity and the note at the end showed me what an important story it was for her to tell.

This is a fantastic piece of historical fiction and I highly recommend it

Black Butterflies is a compelling piece of historical fiction, a very readable account of civilian life during the 1992 siege of Sarajevo. Empathic and immersive, it’s a story of humanity and community in a war zone: a story of survival when everything seems to be falling apart.

Morris is interested in the everyday practicalities of living in a war zone – how to eat, sleep and stave off boredom – and her unassuming prose reflects that. It’s clear and easy to read, but she also captures some real moments of beauty and gut-wrenching brutality. The ‘black butterflies’ are a brilliant example of this, an image which is poetic, tragic and literal all at once. The writing may seem understated, but I was impressed at how skilfully crafted it is, especially for a debut.

Black Butterflies is a rare gem of a novel that celebrates kindness amidst horror, without romanticising war in any way. Highly recommended.

Sorry, I don't want to sound like a book-snob, but this is far more commercial in writing style, tone and attitude than I expected (lots of those 'cold needles of panic pierced my stomach' type sentences - ugh!). I was interested in the subject matter but this feels superficial in treatment and with no subtlety or nuance or additional historical insight, or any sense of knowledge beyond anyone outside of the former Yugoslavia could have read in the newspapers. Just not my type of book - apologies.

Beautifully written and so sad - I remember this well, being on our doorstep and feeling for all those trapped in Sarajevo, which I'd visited before all this happened. Also knew people from Sarajevo over here and it was horrible for them. This brings it all to life so we can all see what they went through. But how awful to have to live with wondering what happened to those left behind.

Zora is a landscaper painter, trapped in the siege of Sarajevo in 1992. Isolated from her family, she'll try to survive the conflict, with her friends' help.

Like one of Zora's paintings, Priscilla tells the story of Sarajevo's war survivors and the atrocities they had to endure during the years of war. Describing small pieces of the surroundings, the feelings, the sounds and the smells, she's adding another stroke to the final painting.

It's an emotional and immersive book, rich in context without falling into gore details. A delicate piece of art for a cruel part of Europe's recent history.

Multi-cultural Sarajevo, with its splendid Hapsburg past eventually comes under siege in the Bosnian War of 1992. With devastating results.
In her remarkably powerful debut novel, Morris recreates the full horror of life in a war zone that thankfully, most of us only see on our news bulletins, albeit with accompanying vivid, reporting from exceptional foreign correspondents like Kate Adie and Frank Gardener.
Zora, the central character is an artist and teacher with a studio in the National and University Library where she paints exquisite landscapes of her beloved homeland. As the situation becomes more dangerous for civilians, she arranges for her husband and elderly mother to relocate to her daughter Dubravka and her husband Steve’s house in England.
It all begins quietly enough. Streets are safe, shops are full and men still play chess under the trees. But very quickly and coinciding with the bitter winter, snipers, explosions and fires reduce the city to a hell hole. Scraps of black paper are soon, all that is left of the magnificent library and Zora’s paintings. She and her neighbours join forces to survive but conditions become increasingly brutal, and hunger, fear, cold, lack of water and grief begin to take their toll.
It takes unbelievable courage, determination and resilience just to survive, let alone maintain some kind of feeling.
Thank you, @NetGalley and @DuckworthBooks for my pre-release copy in return for an honest review.
Bravo, Priscilla Morris. A privilege to read your novel.

Black Butterflies – Priscilla Morris (2022)

Set in Bosnia’s capital during the 1992 Siege of Sarajevo, Priscilla Morris’s debut novel is both a brutal account of the horrors of the Bosnian War, and a warm reflection on love and community in the face of adversity.

Zora is a painter and professor of art, living comfortably in Sarajevo with her family. When her husband decides to bring Zora’s elderly mother to visit their daughter in England, Zora stays put, which turns out to be a life-altering decision. As the rumblings of civil unrest turn into all-out combat and famine, Zora and her neighbours become a close-knit community, sharing what little they have, building and rebuilding their lives amid a vicious war.
Fiction is so powerful; I knew so little about the Bosnian War going into this book, beyond the countries involved and that it was brutal. This novel is so well researched and captures the fear and humanity of the conflict so well; the story is based on the experience of the author’s uncle, which lends it reality and urgency.

Zora is a fully-rounded protagonist, and her struggles and decisions are just so relatable. She is warm and kind without being infallible, and her capacity for love shines through. Her neighbour Mirsad is another beautiful soul, as well as the other neighbours in her building. Despite the horrendous backdrop of the war, this book still has a gentleness at its core; there is beauty to be found in our darkest hours.

This novel also highlights the mundanity of life during conflict; everyone still has to eat, sleep and keep their minds occupied. Humans need stimulation and connection, and that doesn’t change when times become difficult. The imagery of black butterflies peppered throughout the book is powerful and destructive and will stay with me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Duckworth for the ARC! Black Butterflies will be published on May 5th, 2022.

Although the siege of Sarajevo occurred during my early childhood, I knew almost nothing about it, and was intrigued to read Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris, which charts the experience of a fifty-something year old artist, Zora, through the early days of the siege and beyond.

This was an engrossing and informative read, at times harrowing, but never heavy-handed. It felt particularly spine-tingling to observe Zora's disbelief that her happily cosmopolitan city could be ripped apart by wider events, and the guilt and inner conflict that she feels in her desire to escape her home as it descends into the horrors of siege warfare. I also welcomed the opportunity to read a novel with a mature female protagonist, a perspective that rarely seems to take centre stage in contemporary culture.

As with Cormack McCarthy's 'The Road', I emerged from this novel with a sense of gratitude for the safety and security of my own daily life, and for being given such a rich and sensitive insight into the Yugoslav wars.

Oh I loved this novel! Read in one evening I didn’t even notice the speed with which I was nearing the end. I was a teenager of 18 during the war and while I remember it being on the news for months it never really felt relatable to me in the way the world wars did.
Zora is a wonderful protagonist around the age I am now I warmed to her right away. The joy and worry of having adult children out in the world without you and the new joy of freedom from active parenting and time to spend on your own passions are themes many woman will emphasise with.
The use of art work throughout the book is beautiful, from Una and Zora’s tree on the apartment walls to the wonderful ‘pop up’ exhibition that Zora organises in the apartment block and in to the most tragic and beautiful of all the titular black butterflies. Never when I began the book did I realise that this was where the novel got its name and my heart broke for Zora and Sarajevo.
This novel reminds us how easily we can be lulled into sleepwalking into war. It is hard to imagine why so many Jews stayed in Western Europe in the late 1930’s when viewed with hindsight but as Morris shows us here, it happens gradually and as Zora found there are even pockets of positivity as when she realised how much time she had to spend painting because her family had gone to England. Zora and her neighbours remained convinced that the end was just around the corner and that the worst had already happened.
I loved the afterword and hearing the stories that inspired Priscilla Morris to write this book. I think she did everyone she mentioned proud.
I think this book will become a ‘must read’ and will do much to improve peoples knowledge of the war and who the peoples involved. And hopefully it will inspire a younger generation to learn about this period in history and to learn compassion for refugees and asylum seekers.

Historical fiction done right! I didn't know anything about the Bosnian War before reading this but you can tell from the story and the afterword, how much research and effort was put in by Morris to accurately bring the heartbreaking events of the Bosnian War into the book. The writing was simple enough to not be confusing but compelling enough to feel and see the various emotions Zora was feeling, despite it being written in 3rd person.

The imagery of the black butterflies carried throughout the book was beautiful, and a worthy title.

Thanks Netgalley for the ARC.

Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris is a story of the first year of the war in Sarajevo from the perspective of an artist named Zora. This is purely how the war changes the city and its people, how they survive in adversity and come together through the worst of times. Whilst the book covers the horrors and devastation of war, the author is able to tell the story without being overly morose, there is always some glimmer of hope. I would have liked to have spent more time with the characters before the war had started in order to have had a greater understanding of their dynamics and how they change through the book but I don’t believe this is something that is vital to the story. I appreciated the author’s note at the end as this is clearly a very personal story that needed to be told.

This is the brutal account of the war in Bosnia and the devastating consequences for the residents of Sarajevo. We have all encountered spells of suffering from cold, lack of heat, water and food but these are insightful in comparison to the horrors of these combined with a city under constant fire. It’s not a case of survival of the fittest, but perseverance, compromise and hope. I knew so little about this period in our history, as I’m sure others will agree, hence it is a remarkable book bringing enlightenment. An extremely readable account, written with empathy and courage. Once in a while a novel of this magnitude hits the shelves and I’d encourage anyone who has the slightest curiosity as to what actually occurred in Sarajevo at the beginning of the war to read this account of death and destruction. Although it’s a work of fiction, the facts run true.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers Duckworth for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was so intrigued to read this novel on discovering that it was set during the siege of Sarajevo, this being something I unfortunately don’t know much about. With such an original subject matter it’s brilliantly different from anything else I’ve read.
Historical fiction not to be missed. 🇧🇦

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me access an advance copy of this book in exchange for my feedback.

Such a beautiful narration about a part of history I know very little about. Morris's writing and characters will stay with me for a long time.