Scala Radio Book Club: Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris
When violence finally spills over, Zora, an artist and teacher, sends her husband and elderly mother to safety with her daughter in England
Last updated 17th Aug 2022
In the Scala Radio Book Club this week (Thursday 5th May 2022), Mark Forrest chatted to Priscilla Morris, on her debut novel, Black Butterflies.
Sarajevo, spring 1992. 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.
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 than a handful of weeks, she stays behind while the city falls under siege. As the assault deepens and everything they love is laid to waste, black ashes floating over the rooftops, Zora and her friends are forced to rebuild themselves, over and over. Theirs is a breath-taking story of disintegration, resilience and hope.
Black Butterflies is an intensely evocative and deeply moving novel, exquisitely crafted to capture the life inside the siege of Sarajevo.
Mark asked, ‘The book is set against the Siege of Sarajevo, which took place 30 years ago in 1992. The book reminds us of how complicated the Balkan wars were. The breakup of the former Yugoslavia wasn't straightforward. Just remind us when the book begins, who is fighting and why?’
‘Well, yes, it's pretty complicated,’ said Priscilla. ‘Basically, Bosnia had three main constituent ethno- national groups. Bosnian Muslims sometimes called Bosniaks, Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats. And to simplify that, Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats were in favour of independence from Yugoslavia, whereas the Bosnian Serbs wanted to remain part of Yugoslavia. So that's why the trouble started.’
Mark said, ‘Your main character, Zora, she is a Serb and she is imprisoned, as is everybody else in Sarajevo. How did this happen?
‘Yes. So not all Bosnian Serbs were nationalists. So, this is what happened. The Bosnian Serb nationalists surrounded Sarajevo and started shelling it. But there were people of all three ethnicities trapped inside Sarajevo, and very often that's forgotten.
My mother and her family are Bosnian, Serb, Muslim and Slovenian. My grandparents, my father and relatives were trapped in Sarajevo under siege. So all ethnicities were trapped. All three ethnicities also defended the city. So you did have Bosnian Serbs fighting against the Bosnian Serb nationalists. Quite a complicated picture.’
Mark asked, ‘The title of the book is Black Butterflies, and this refers to the books and art that was destroyed by fire after shelling by the Serbs breaking up, blowing in the wind. Is this something that actually happened or is this a bit of your creative imagination?’
‘It is something that actually happened,’ said Priscilla. ‘So the old town hall in Sarajevo was a landmark building and it housed the National Library. When this building was shelled in August of 1992, it went up in the most enormous fire that became a sort of symbol of Sarajevo under siege. The firemen came but couldn't put this out because they had no water in their hoses, and it burnt all night. For days afterwards, the sort of charred pages of books and art were floating over Sarajevo, and people actually called them black butterflies. So, this is where I got the title from.’
Find out about more Scala Radio Book Club guests here >>
Discover more Literary Fiction from authors who have visited the Scala Radio Book Club
Lifesaving for Beginners by Josie Lloyd
Maddy Wolfe's life has just capsized. After her twenty-year marriage suddenly implodes, she heads to Brighton to search for her estranged son, Jamie. But he's nowhere to be found and for the first time, she's totally alone. That is, until she meets the Salty Sea-Gals, a group of feisty sea-swimmers.
The Yellow Kitchen by Margaux Vialleron
Exploring the complexities of female friendship, The Yellow Kitchen is a hymn to the last year of London as we knew it and a celebration of the culture, the food and the rhythms we live by.
These Streets by Luan Goldie
From the author of Nightingale Point, longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2020, comes a new thought-provoking novel.
Either Or by Elif Batuman
Selin is the luckiest person in her family: the only one who was born in America and got to go to Harvard. Now it's her second year, 1996, and Selin knows she has to make it count. The first order of business: to figure out the meaning of everything that happened over the summer.
Brouhaha by Ardal O’Hanlon
The second novel from the popular comedian and Father Ted star is a hard-edge black comedy of buried secrets and deadly rumours, as a suicide in an Irish border town rekindles the memory of a long-vanished girl.
Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris
When violence finally spills over, Zora, an artist and teacher, sends her husband and elderly mother to safety with her daughter in England.
The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
Intellectually dazzling and extraordinarily moving, The Candy House is a bold, brilliant imagining of a world that is moments away.
Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes
From Booker Prize-winning author of The Sense of an Ending. Charting the story of a remarkable teacher through the recollections of a former student, this stunning novel is both a breath-taking testament to the power of human connection and a deeply felt love letter to philosophy.
Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart
A page-turning second novel from the 2020 Booker-prize-winning author of Shuggie Bain.
Born under different stars, Protestant Mungo and Catholic James live in the hyper-masculine and violently sectarian world of Glasgow's housing estates. They should be sworn enemies and yet they become best friends.
The Return of Faraz Ali by Aamina Ahmad
Sent back to his birthplace - Lahore's notorious red-light district - to hush up the murder of a girl, a man finds himself in an unexpected reckoning with his past.
The Great Passion by James Runcie
Love and Death. Grief and Joy. Music that lasts forever. Leipzig, 1726. Eleven-year-old Stefan Silbermann, a humble organ-maker's son, has just lost his mother. Sent to Leipzig to train as a singer in the St Thomas Church choir, he struggles to stay afloat in a school where the teachers are as casually cruel as the students.
Booth by Karen Joy Fowler
From the award-winning author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Booth delivers a mesmerising nineteenth-century saga of a thespian family whose six siblings come to adulthood in the shadow of the American Civil War.
Sell Us the Rope by Stephen May
Revolutionary, poet, lover. Robber, murderer, spy. British novelist, playwright and TV writer, Stephen May joined Mark to speak about his latest book and Indie Book of the Month, Sell Us the Rope.
Again, Rachel by Marian Keyes
The long-awaited follow up to Keyes' bestselling Rachel's Holiday finds our titular heroine having hauled her life back on track, only to suffer a spectacular setback when an old flame arrives in her life once more.
Love Marriage by Monica Ali
A powerfully humane, hilarious and heartbreaking story of a young couple about to tie the knot as their families from two different cultures try to understand each other.
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
An extraordinary story of how the inheritance of secrets, betrayal and memories can shape a family for generations.
A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe
Nineteen-year-old William's decision to volunteer at the tragic scene of the 1966 Aberfan landslide transforms his life forever in this moving story about sacrifice and compassion.
The Unravelling by Polly Crosby
A darkly beautiful dual-timeline novel with a captivating mystery, for fans of Diane Setterfield, Kate Morton, Kate Mosse and Kiran Millwood Hargrave.
The Love Songs of W.E.B DuBois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
A breathtaking and ambitious debut novel that chronicles the journey of multiple generations of one American family, from the centuries of the colonial slave trade through the Civil War to our own tumultuous era, by prize-winning poet Honorée Fanonne Jeffers.