Priscilla Morris’s Black Butterflies is a timely love letter to a war-torn Sarajevo

Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris

Estelle Birdy

June 05 2022 02:30 AM

Black Butterflies Priscilla Morris Duckworth, €16.99

It’s spring 1992 as Priscilla Morris’s thoughtful and atmospheric debut opens in Sarajevo. Zora is a 55-year-old artist and teacher, a Bosnian Serb, happily married to Franjo. Their daughter, settled with her own young family in England, receives annual visits from her parents and grandmother.

But now, the picture of a previously love-filled life in the ancient multicultural city of Sarajevo is starting to fracture. Chetniks – Serbian nationalist gangs – roam the streets, erecting walls, splitting the city into its three ethnic groups: Muslim, Serb, Croat. People tear down the barricades.

To stem the flow of Sarajevans fleeing from what they fear is ahead, a law has been passed decreeing that abandoned properties can be usurped by anyone who cares to. When Zora and Franjo check on Zora’s mother’s apartment, they find an obnoxious family has taken over.

The atmosphere of impending doom, even as the Bosnian Muslim president reassures the population that they can fight the tyranny, is beautifully drawn. Franjo begs Zora to leave before it’s too late. Pragmatic and in disbelief that the city she loves could fall to barbarism, she is not for budging. What would happen to their homes, her beloved art studio? “People say that the tanks of the Yugoslav National Army have come to protect them, but why they’re needed here where everyone loves each other, Zora isn’t sure.”

The family splits, Franjo and Zora’s mother escaping to England, Zora remaining.

The descent into madness begins. Serbian gangs shoot and kill at a peaceful protest. Commuters walk close to buildings to avoid snipers. A feast with neighbours is interrupted by shelling. All of this, the stomach-churning unease and the practical ways people very quickly adapt – queuing for UN food parcels, reading lists of the dead – is colourfully rendered in accessible language.

Zora and her neighbours begin to cleave together and a close friendship develops between Zora and her Muslim neighbour, Mirsad – a bookseller.

This is a reflective novel about dark times that tells us life goes on, love stories develop, humanity remains in the most inhumane of times.

Priscilla Morris’s Black Butterflies is a timely love letter to a war-torn Sarajevo

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