Girl at War - Sara Nović

This book has been sitting on my shelf for about three years, and for some strange reason I just haven't felt compelled to read it until now. One of my goals for the 2020 lockdown has been to read books that I already have on my shelf as opposed to placing a million orders - hence I finally read this. Girl at War by Sara Nović brings to light the horrors and brutality of the Bosnian-Croat civil war, then Yugoslavia, which took place in the nineties. Our protagonist, Ana Jurić, is aged ten when the novel begins, growing up in Zagreb with her best friend Luka, parents and baby sister Rahela. She is an adventurous tomboy with a curiosity for danger, but when air raid drills and sniper firing becomes part of everyday life, she must learn to grow up very quickly.

The novel illustrates Ana's unbelievable escape from her near-fate at a mass shooting, with many other captured civilians falling into a mass grave to their death. She becomes ensnared in a new life as a child soldier in war-torn Croatia, before her flee to America and a stable home. The novel jumps back and forth between her horrific childhood and her time as a college student in New York, when she struggles to come to terms with her true identity and tells people she was born and raised in America - not wanting to re-live the trauma of her past.

This novel is around 300 pages long so a quick read, and it really packs a punch - I almost think Nović could have made the novel much longer, as it seems to merely scratch the surface of the experiences of the protagonist. I would've liked to learn more about Ana's upbringing and how she overcame her lack of identity, as well as her return to America after visiting Croatia for the summer and how being back in her home country has affected her as an adult. The writing is simplistic yet really paints a picture, and this is a quick and easy read whilst also teaching you a fair bit about the Yugoslavian conflict (which I knew very little about). A recommendation from me!