There is a very sad death towards the end that I could acknowledge as heartbreaking but I didn't feel the sorrow because of that disconnection. His books are a far cry from what I get from Rupi Kaur who was actually the author who got me into poetry books at all. this was a great read, especially if you are interested in the history of American structural racism and displacement/segregation, and/or the city of Baltimore and racism. Brown will demonstrate how data visualization can be a tool to distribute resources to communities in need, and speak to the roles of design, planning, and preservation in healing and restoring redlined Black neighborhoods. The Black Butterfly dissects American apartheid with unflinching precision and poignancy, weaving together fresh historical accounts with undiluted analysis of our present moment.

Sarajevo is a multicultural city (where the city is full of the Muslim, Serb, Croat, and Yugoslav populations) but racial sentiments, and ethnic tensions have arisen, and conflict is brewing.It covers the first 10 months, and while it doesn't shy away from the horror and desperation, it also provides an insight to the warmth and humanity of the multicultural populace, trying to go about their ordinary lives under extraordinary circumstances. The book reads like a typical historical fiction without any uniqueness in form or distinctiveness in writing or prose (PS: I know I shouldn't be too harsh as this is a debut work by Morris). However, the transport lines are closed soon after his departure and Zora find herself stuck all alone in a war-torn city, with hardly any resources, very few trustworthy neighbours, and no hope of escape. I may have been raised at the height of ‘the troubles’ in Northern Ireland but I have no concept of life in a war zone. 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.

Zora is a 55 year old artist who teaches art at college and loves to paint bridges and nature scenes in her spare time. I would urge you to read the Author’s Note wherein Morris talks about her family and the real events that inspired this novel.

In a Nutshell: An enlightening and traumatising fictional account of a war I wasn’t much aware of – the Bosnian war of the early 1990s.