Review: Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris
Shortlisted for the 2023 Nota Bene Prize, Black Butterflies is a breathtaking story of disintegration, resilience and hope. Priscilla’s debut novel is inspired by real accounts and family history of the siege of Sarajevo. It was published in May 2022 to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the start of the almost-four-year assault.
Sarajevo, 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.
REVIEWED BY FAIDZ ZAINAL ABIDIN
“We’re all refugees now. We spend our days waiting for water, for bread, for humanitarian handouts: beggars in our own city.”
Black Butterflies follows the story of art professor Zora Kočović who, after sending off her husband and mother to be with her daughter in England, finds herself alone in Sarajevo, witnessing and living the siege of her city. Assuming it’s just a temporary situation, she’s hesitant to leave, still going to her art class daily for her students and trying, or pretending to, go about living normally. As the condition worsens, she gradually loses contact with her family. Phone lines are dead, water and electricity are cut off, there’s no postal service, and no other means of communication. Together with friends and neighbours - Muslim, Croat, Serb – they are forced to rebuild themselves, looking out for, supporting and comforting each other.
Although the book is about the ugly war in Sarajevo, art is at the centre of the book. Zora’s love and passion for her work and art play a part in her choice to stay behind. Determined to finish her painting, Zora was never going to leave her students. Even when her studio is destroyed in a bombing, she continues her work at home, using her walls as canvases and creating sculptures from wires and twigs.
Morris’ debut highlights the beauty of art, pushing the dark, harrowing war into the background. Here the arts represent the city: the landscape, the people, the library, the bridge, life. A compelling read about people’s resilience, hope and strength in times of war and of course, the importance of art. Beautifully written and researched, Morris’ family’s experiences were the inspiration behind this book.