Black Butterflies: Shortlisted for the Women's Prize 2023

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE 2023

SHORTLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 2023

SHORTLISTED FOR THE AUTHORS' CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2023

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILBUR SMITH PRIZE 2023

SHORTLISTED FOR THE NOTA BENE PRIZE 2023

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Sarajevo, spring 1992. Each night, nationalist gangs erectbarricades, splitting the diverse city into ethnic enclaves; eachmorning, the residents - whether Muslim, Croat or Serb -push the makeshift barriers aside.

When violence finally spills over, Zora, an artist and teacher,sends her husband and elderly mother to safety with her daughter in England. Reluctant to believe that hostilities will last more thana handful of weeks, she stays behind while the city falls under siege.As the assault deepens and everything they love is laid to waste, blackashes floating over the rooftops, Zora and her friends are forced torebuild themselves, over and over. Theirs is a breathtaking storyof disintegration, resilience and hope.

Reviews

'Feels totally authentic Along with human kindness,there is a quiet emphasis on the power of art:Zoras paintings, like the existence of this book, are testimony to the way that wars come and go but art goes on foreverThe Sunday Times

'A lyrical, devastating and timely love letter to war-torn Sarajevo... There are moments of shocking brutality set against others of unexpected beauty and resilience. Exquisitely crafted, it pulses with tension: we couldnt stop turning the pages'Rachel Joyce, Guardian

'An intensely evocative and deeply moving debut I held my breath as I readRuth Gilligan, RSL Ondaatje Prize-winning author of The Butchers

Beautifully written andhauntingly evocative,Black Butterfliesdistils into a single consciousness a nations violent trauma and an artists sense of hope. Priscilla Morris has crafted arich and highly accomplished debutSam Byers, author of Perfidious Albion

In thiscompelling and convincingdebut novel,Morris brilliantly evokes a world slipping, day by day, under the surface of the opaque waters of war.Dark and yet starkly beautiful,Black Butterfliesis a narrative of how violence scars the soul of a city and its inhabitants. It is at once a testament to the victims and survivors of the Siege of Sarajevo, to the power of art and to Morris's skills as a storyteller, all the more keenly felt for the subtlety with which they are deployedAminatta Forna, author of Happiness

Black Butterfliesisincredible, a must-read. There are few novels that stay with you after the final page is read, but this is one. Brutal yet also uplifting,immersiveand real, it shows what the human spirit is capable of'Karen Angelico, author of Everything We Are

Anastonishingly gooddebut, chronicling one of the darkest times in global history.It reads so authenticallythat I might assume it was a book in translation, albeit by an excellent translator. Like food and fuel in the Siege of Sarajevo, no word is wasted. Zoras story broke my heart, andI hope it will open the hearts of all those who read itto refugees, at a time when history is destined to repeat itselfLiz Nugent, author of Our Little Cruelties

Black Butterfliesisan elegy to the vibrant and inclusive society...This novel comes at an apt time, not just because it marks the thirtieth anniversary of the beginning of the Siege of Sarajevo, but because it testifies to the ease and speed with which things can fall apartKevin Sullivan, author of The Longest Winter

Author Bio

Priscilla Morris is the daughter of a Yugoslav mother and a Cornish father. She grew up in London, spending summers in Sarajevo, and studied at Cambridge University and the University of East Anglia, where she gained her PhD in Creative Writing. She teaches Creative Writing at University College Dublin and currently lives between Ireland and Spain. Black Butterflies is her debut novel.