Bookworm in the City

Black butterflies / Priscilla Morris (2022)
What it is: a beautiful debut
Did I like it: absolutely

This book could be used to fill three different categories as it is set in a country I have never visited, and has a colour in the title as well. But the reason it stood out to me was the word butterflies so I’m using it for the no. 6 slot.

The book is set in modern history, starting in Sarajevo 1992.
It’s spring and there is tension in the air.
Main character Zora is a painter and art teacher and she’s passionate about her job. She’s also optimistic about the tension, figuring it will end well, but gets served a reality check by an incident that leaves her mother in a state of severe shock. As a teacher, Zora is stuck to a school schedule and cannot leave, so Zora and her husband decided that he and her mother will travel to England where their daughter lives. Her husband will stay for a week to help get her mother settled and then he will go back to Sarajevo so Zora will only be alone for a week.
However, two days after her husband and mother have left, Bosnia-Herzegovina is acknowledged as an independent state which is a catalyst for fighting to break out. As a Serb, Zora is proud and relieved to be living in a recognized independent state, but the fighting confuses her: how is a civil war possible in a place where people from different cultures have been living alongside one another for so long?
Suddenly, there are snipers on city rooftops and roads into the mountains are blocked off by the military. The airport has been closed by the military as well and Sarajevo has become a sieged city.
Because her husband can’t travel back the family tries to arrange transportation to get Zora out, but that’s near-impossible and Zora isn’t really trying too hard from her end of the situation: she still thinks it will all pass quickly and she doesn’t want to leave the properties unattended or her students without a teacher.
To escape reality, she works daily in her studio which is located in the national library. This building houses the national library as well. The studio offers her a safe space and she paints with newfound energy. Until one day she’s no longer allowed to go into the building and left standing on the doorsteps along with the librarians. When one of the soldiers recognizes her as his former teacher, he sneaks her in and allows her an hour to pack up anything she can carry.
Upset and confused she takes what she can, and from then on starts painting at home instead. One of the neighbour’s children becomes her private student and because they don’t have canvases they paint on the walls of the apartment.
All the while the situation becomes more and more dire. No phones, no mail, no electricity, no water.
When after months without contact she finally gets the opportunity to call her family in England, it turns out her husband and daughter have more information on her situation than she does herself and it makes her realize just how bad it is. So, when the opportunity arises to get herself listed for an evacuation convoy, she doesn’t hesitate and starts to prepare for her leave. She informs her family, she says goodbye to neighbours and friends, and gives away personal items. But the transport gets delayed twice and by the time a new date is issued, winter has arrived and people are realizing the harsh winter will be brutal. So, more and more sign up for the evacuation, and because the elderly and sick get prioritized Zora gets bumped from the list and has to survive the winter in the city after all.

Zora is naïve and innocent, which makes her clash with the horrible setting of the story. You witness her growing smarter, tougher, and a veteran of survival who eventually has no trouble breaking a pigeon’s neck with her bare hands.
The story is about survival, about the people left behind becoming a community, about people being able to celebrate wonderful things in the most terrible times.

But what about those butterflies?
Although some titles require little to no explanation but for this one, it took a while for it to become clear. I could be heard making an “aah” sound when I found out. And no, of course I’m not going to spoil anything here. The book’s too good to be spoiled in such a rude fashion.