Black Butterflies: the exquisitely crafted debut novel that captures life inside the Siege of Sarajevo

’Chillingly resonant with the scenes unfolding in Ukraine, Black Butterflies is a book for our time’
SARAH BURTON\n––––––––––––
SAREJEVO. SPRING 1992.
Each night, nationalist gangs erect barricades, splitting the diverse city into ethnic enclaves; each morning, the residents – whether Muslim, Croat or Serb – 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.
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*MORE PRAISE FOR BLACK BUTTERFLIES*
’Moving, compelling, deeply human'
EMMA STONEX, bestselling author of The Lamplighters
'An astonishingly good debut'
LIZ NUGENT, author of Our Little Cruelties
’The best contemporary novel I have read for a long while’
SARAH BURTON, author of The Strange Adventures of H
’Intensely evocative and deeply moving… I held my breath as a I read’
RUTH GILLIGAN, RSL Ondaatje Prize-winning author of The Butchers
’Dark and yet starkly beautiful'
AMINATTA FORNA, author of The Hired Man
’Beautifully written and hauntingly evocative'
SAM BYERS, author of Perfidious Albion
’An elegy to the vibrant and inclusive society'
KEVIN SULLIVAN, author of The Longest Winter
’Immersive, incredible, a must-read'
KAREN ANGELICO, author of Everything We Are