Black Butterflies

"Morris’s debut novel is set during the Siege of Sarajevo—a four-year ordeal in which the city’s residents were trapped in their homes without heating, power, or clean water, and subjected to daily shelling and sniper fire. She told The Irish Times that it was partly based on the experiences of her mother’s family, and that she and her sisters had spent the war in London, “watch[ing] the news anxiously each night, scanning faces for a glimpse of a relative.” Black Butterflies, whose title references the ash that would flutter down over the city, follows the painter and art teacher Zora who has refused to leave the city as she adapts to this harrowing new normal. It’s been shortlisted for a number of other prizes, including the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize (for ‘evoking the spirit of a place’) and the Author’s Club award for first novels. It will suit fans of humane and literary war novels, such as Sebastian Faulks’ Birdsong ."