Girl at War: A Novel

For readers of The Tigers Wife and All the Light We Cannot See comes a powerful debut novel about a girls coming of ageand how her sense of family, friendship, love, and belonging is profoundly shaped by war. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BOOKPAGE, BOOKLIST, AND ELECTRIC LITERATURE ALEX AWARD WINNER LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE FINALIST LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILEYS WOMENS PRIZE FOR FICTION Zagreb, 1991. Ana Juri is a carefree ten-year-old, living with her family in a small apartment in Croatias capital. But that year, civil war breaks out across Yugoslavia, splintering Anas idyllic childhood. Daily life is altered by food rations and air raid drills, and soccer matches are replaced by sniper fire. Neighbors grow suspicious of one another, and Anas sense of safety starts to fray. When the war arrives at her doorstep, Ana must find her way in a dangerous world. New York, 2001. Ana is now a college student in Manhattan. Though shes tried to move on from her past, she cant escape her memories of warsecrets she keeps even from those closest to her. Haunted by the events that forever changed her family, Ana returns to Croatia after a decade away, hoping to make peace with the place she once called home. As she faces her ghosts, she must come to terms with her countrys difficult history and the events that interrupted her childhood years before. Moving back and forth through time, Girl at War is an honest, generous, brilliantly written novel that illuminates how history shapes the individual. Sara Novi fearlessly shows the impact of war on one young girland its legacy on all of us. Its a debut by a writer who has stared into recent history to find a story that continues to resonate today. Praise for Girl at War Outstanding . . . Girl at War performs the miracle of making the stories of broken lives in a distant country feel as large and universal as myth.The New York Times Book Review (Editors Choice) [An] old-fashioned page-turner that will demand all of the readers attention, happily given. A debut novel that astonishes.Vanity Fair Shattering . . . The book begins with what deserves to become one of contemporary literatures more memorable opening lines. The sentences that follow are equally as lyrical as a folk lament and as taut as metal wire wrapped through an electrified fence.USA Today