Girl at War: A Novel
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 Juric 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 Novic 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
Zagreb, 1991. Ana Juric 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 Novic 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
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
This was a difficult book to read that dealt with some very heavy issues, including loss of innocent, child soldiers, PTSD, and the meaning of home. I found it very easy to read and get into, even if the subject matter was difficult. I enjoyed following Ana's story from naive child to disillusioned child soldier and then eventual refugee in America trying to make sense of her story and trauma. I'm unsure if I like that the ending was so open-ended or if I wish there had been a more solid conclusion. I think I like it cause it's kind of like ~the future is wide open for her now, but at the same time, I want to know what happens with Ana and her various relationships with people afterwards. Overall though, this was a solid book that I really enjoyed.
Girl at war helps us to imagine the life of a child during a war. Ana is 10 in the first part of the Book and war in Croatia is just beginning. The details clearly relate the palpable tension in Zagreb.
The was a good story, however the ending left me wanting to know more about the heroine. It ended very abruptly and I couldn't believe there was no chapters left to read. Her writing is beautiful and I would have given it 5 stars if the ending didn't leave me hanging.......
This story is told through the eyes of Ana Juric as a ten-year-old, when the Yougoslav wars began in 1991, and later when she is an adult. The pacing is measured as it captures the reality that life must go on in Zagreb, the capital of what is now Croatia, despite the regularity of air raid sirens and some bombing. Parents go to their jobs, children attend school, ride bikes, play games, and tell stories, “an unspoken contest of gore,” about people who have been killed or maimed.
There are rationing, erratic utility services, and traumatized refugees passing through, but the overarching tension earlier in the novel centers on the mysterious illness of Ana’s baby sister Rahela and the desperation to find medical help in a time of war. Rahela’s parents will discover they have no option but to send their child to America for treatment. It is on the return trip from Sarajevo that Ana and her family are touched by the barbarity of war.
While in New York, Ana learned to bury her true self, her history, to avoid the “uncomfortable shifting of eyes, as if they were waiting for me to take things back, to say that war or genocide was actually no big deal.” But that will change when she agrees to participate in a presentation at the UN, to help the delegates understand the role of children in war. “There is no such thing as a child soldier in Croatia,” she will say. “There is only a child with a gun.”
After this talk, Ana’s past and memories begin to bubble up, and she is helpless at stopping the flow. She will return to Croatia to seek answers and hope for a path forward.
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.