Girl at War

Set in former Yugoslavia, this powerful novel follows a girl whose only chance of survival is to escape war and rebuild a life elsewhere.

I found the way the author tells this story beautiful, even though the story is tragic, and describes the complexities of civil strife as well as their impact on ordinary people living in a country that is now split into Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia.

“Fiction does give you a capacity for empathy,” says the author. It should–and I found that this one does.

An impossible-to-put-down important read about the Serbian-Croatian war and its impact on children, specifically one, the narrator, Ana.

Ana's story is full of love and strength, sorrow and loneliness. She is a true heroine who survives what most would think unsurvivable and eventually leaves her country of birth and the only world she has ever known to land in America.

During this timeframe, 1991-1995, I wasn't paying attention, preoccupied with my own war: living in Israel, First Gulf War, and the false promise of peace that followed. Thank you, Sara Novic, for waking me up and reminding me of our… show more.