The title says it all. Sara Nović’s novel, Girl at War, is a compelling account of Ana, a ten-year old Croatian girl living in Zagreb, and her shocking, life-changing experiences during the cruelty and carnage that overtook her country and the rest of the multi-ethnic ex-Yugoslavian state a generation ago. I chafed each time I had to put it down to eat, sleep, or perform a household chore. It has the feel of a memoir: both the war scenes that froze Ana into a repressed silence and the later scenes of struggle to come to grips with the memories–forget? forgive? move on?–are gripping.
Beautifully written in simple, unflorid prose, its final paragraph attains a kind of poetry. If you want to know what war is like for those caught in its crosshairs, read this book!
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