Who Would Like This Book:
If you're drawn to powerful coming-of-age stories, historical fiction, or novels that tackle the emotional aftermath of war, "Girl at War" is a compelling choice. Sara Nović paints a vivid, haunting portrait of Ana, who navigates childhood in war-torn Croatia and adulthood in America, struggling to reconcile the two worlds. The writing is lyrical yet understated, making even the most devastating moments deeply human and relatable. Readers who appreciate nuanced character development, stories about resilience, and a window into lesser-known chapters of recent history will find this book both eye-opening and moving.
Who May Not Like This Book:
Some readers may find the book's structure - shifting between past and present - a bit jarring or wish for more resolution at the end. Those who prefer a fast-paced plot or lighthearted reading may find the subject matter heavy, as it deals with the complexities and traumas of war and displacement. Additionally, a few felt the latter sections lost some momentum or the emotional punch compared to the gripping early chapters.
About:
'Girl at War' by Sara Novi? is a poignant novel that follows the life of Ana Juric, a young girl living in Croatia during the civil war in Yugoslavia. The story shifts between Ana's experiences as a 10-year-old during the war and as a college student in New York, grappling with her past. The book delves into themes of war, loss, identity, and resilience, offering a multilayered narrative that captures the horrors of war and the struggle to come to terms with the past.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings for the book include depictions of war violence, trauma, child suffering, and themes of genocide.
From The Publisher:
For readers of The Tiger's Wife and All the Light We Cannot See comes a powerful debut novel about a girl's coming of age-and 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 WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION
Zagreb, 1991. Ana Jurić is a carefree ten-year-old, living with her family in a small apartment in Croatia's capital. But that year, civil war breaks out across Yugoslavia, splintering Ana's 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 Ana's 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 she's tried to move on from her past, she can't escape her memories of war-secrets 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 country's 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 Nović fearlessly shows the impact of war on one young girl-and its legacy on all of us. It's 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 (Editor's Choice)
"[An] old-fashioned page-turner that will demand all of the reader's attention, happily given. A debut novel that astonishes."-Vanity Fair
"Shattering . . . The book begins with what deserves to become one of contemporary literature's 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
Ratings (5)
Loved It (3) | |
It Was OK (2) |
Reader Stats (21):
Read It (6) | |
Want To Read (11) | |
Not Interested (4) |
1 comment(s)
girl at war is a very "i have an mfa" novel
that doesn't make it bad, it just makes it a certain flavor
i mean, the references to sebald, plus ana taking pictures, okay i see you there
anyway the book is very subtle, you almost don't see the punch coming at you until it hits you in the very last scene
and it isn't a "it was all a dream!" or some other twist punch
it's a very emotional, grounded, punch to the heart
when suddenly you realize that this all really happened, even if these exact events didn't happen
people were randomly stopped on the road and then shot into a mass grave because they had the wrong last name
a little girl climbed out of a pile of bodies and lived in a limbo town where occupation and resistance existed at the same time for a short moment in the war
the struggle is local but global, it follows ana everywhere
and we aren't left with closure but with the promise that her future will be global and local, finding her friends wherever they are in the world and bringing her sister back to her home country
and all we can do is sweep up the mess and try to look to the future
3.5 stars
What can you read after
Girl at War?
About the Author:
Sara Nović is an assistant professor of creative writing at Stockton University and the fiction editor for Blunderbuss Magazine. She holds an MFA from Columbia University, where she studied fiction and literary translation. Her first novel, Girl at War, won the American Library…
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