Black ButterFly

Product Information

This book will be published on the 30th anniversary of the Siege of Sarajevo. It’s an informative novel allowing readers to develop compassion for refugees and those who seek asylum today. Zora Kočović is a professor of art at the Academy of Fine Arts at the University in Sarajevo, where she lives with her husband Franjo, a former journalist and eighty-three-year-old mother, who spends winters at their flat. Sarajevo is a city Zora knows and loves deeply, so much so, that she can’t envision living anywhere else:

Butterflies are an iconic and popular sight during the spring and summer months. They are also important indicators of a healthy ecosystem and provide valuable environmental benefits such as pest control and pollination. As food for birds, bats and other mammals they are a vital part of the food chain and have been used for centuries by scientists to investigate navigation, pest control and evolution, as well as countless other subjects. 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. The Bosnian war of 1992–1995 was something I knew little about, and this book helped me get some context. While the book doesn’t go into the motivations and differences that led to the conflict (indeed, the characters themselves are at a loss to point a finger at why), it goes give one an insight into the kind of multicultural space Sarajevo was. I had no idea that it was part of the Ottoman empire once, and enjoyed getting glimpses of its culture like how festivals were celebrated and some folklore as well as some of its bridges and landmarks. Sarajevo’s people continue to fight against the seeds of division that the conflict tries to sow (there are some of course, who hold radical views, too). A particularly beautiful, yet highly distressing moment is where people get together to save what they can from the library which is on fire: Thanks to Butterfly Conservation for letting us use their images throughout this article. For more information on UK butterflies and how you can help them, please visit Butterfly Conservation.org. Here you will find a wealth of information to help you find and identify butterflies and moths. 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.”

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. I finished this in one day (actually less than a day, maybe 4 hours) the reason I stopped after I was 61% into the book is because I was realizing that I'm reading too fast and that soon I'm going to run out. But then I couldn't sleep and I was thinking about it so decided to finish it. So now that we've established how I read this.. Let me tell about this. This book is everything… this book is for all who are breathing and for all who are no longer here.

However, it was more of the 10,000-foot view of how various systems work together to create the current mess and what it would take to solve it. 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. Half of Sarajevo is Muslim, a quarter Serb, and fewer than one in ten Croat. A third of marriages are mixed, the children simply calling themselves ‘Yugoslav’.” Because I read the audiobook edition I wasn't able to read the Author's Note, but I found this article that explains how the novel relates to the author's family. https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/bo... However, I wanted a bit more from the characterization. Zora’s strength, resilience, and love for her family and her art were on full display, but I wish we had seen more of the nuances of her character. I also wanted more from the side characters. The ending also felt a bit abrupt. I get that in the horrors of war some threads will never be tied up fully, but it was a bit too open-ended for my taste. This book also includes one of my least favorite tropes (an affair), and the fallout of that was never examined in any real depth.

Book review: The Black Butterfly: The Harmful Politics of Race and Space in America

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.” 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. Amongst the horror and deprivation, there are snatched moments of happiness: a shared meal assembled from scraps of food, the telling of stories around a makeshift fire, a ‘bring your own art’ exhibition, the warmth of another body next to yours. The possibility of making a perilous escape from the city brings Zora hope that she might be reunited with her family but also a feeling of guilt for others left behind. In 2019, when then president Donald Trump called Baltimore “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess,” everyone intrinsically knew he wasn’t referring to actual rats and rodents. The illiberal euphemisms were crystal clear. Such is the nature of bigotry in the 21st century, it manifests itself under the guise of “plausible deniability.” Told from Zora’s POV, the use of third-person helped remind me that this beautifully written, descriptive, heartbreaking, and reflective story wasn’t a memoir!

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. Priscilla Morris’ writing is serviceable but the book excels at created an emotive atmosphere. The reader will feel Zora’s pain and pleasure when finding ways to survive and her eventual bid for freedom.

Butterfly Conservation

Art is also an important thread of the book. This is what Zora does and also really the way she expresses her love for the city and also her emotions towards it. Initially we see her painting its bridges and landscapes—and later the destruction and fires that take over the city. Art also ends up offering her solace, when she feels lost, for her neighbours sending their little daughter Una for lessons gives her (in fact them both) something to look forward to.

The story starts with an element of denial which is also common in the World War11 stories I’ve read. Citizens can’t imagine circumstances could get worse, that the rumors are true, that the occupying force would really threaten lives or cause destruction or take away freedoms or imprison responsible citizens. I think most of us felt a bit of denial early in the Pandemic. This will be over in two weeks. It couldn’t possibly get worse or last for years. It’s human nature to deny that the worst could happen. We see this situation in Ukraine today. Before the Russian invasion, I saw an interview with some Ukrainian citizens and they reported that they were not concerned and planned to continue on with their normal activities…..they are threats we have heard and lived with for years and we’re not worried they said. My heart broke on the Robert Williams poem, it was so pure so honest. It reminded me of all the times I watched a movie because eh starred in it, of all the smiles he drew on many faces, of all the love he spread! What makes this book a 5 for me is the offering of ideas for solutions. It does more than identify and describe challenges. Brown is creative.There’s a new category here now: the good Serb, i.e. the Serb who is not a nationalist, who does not want to divide the country, to ethnically cleanse. I’m constantly having to reassure people that I’m a good Serb. It’s driving me insane.” 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. thought together?) between words are in an uncomfortable position, at least for me. You don't need to put lots of spaces just so it would look like poetry. Grasslands are an incredibly valuable habitat for many of the UK’s moths and butterflies. Semi-natural grassland, pasture, arable land, urban parkland and any areas with rough unmanaged grass will all support a variety of butterfly species. In the height of summer these areas can be teeming with Skippers, Common Blues, Ringlets and Meadow Browns. Be sure to inspect any flowering plants (particularly thistles and knapweeds) as these can act as vital nectaring points for many butterflies. Pay close attention for the fast and subtle movements of smaller species as these can often disappear against such a busy environment. A prime example of this is the Small Copper which is notoriously hard to spot due to its minute size, fast flight and discrete colouration (when its wings are closed). LOOK OUT FOR: