This is a novel that reads like a war memoir. The author is talented. It's a psychologically heavy read. It was recommended to me a few times but I was hesitant because of how the chapters were described. The flipping back and forth between timelines, I mean. It was more straightforward than I anticipated, but I was still flipping pages trying to figure out what was going on at points. I knew nothing about the real-life events the author was describing. I felt like this book taught me more about it, and I felt weird about that. I don't know how to articulate it. I don't know anyone affected, I mean. Reading this made me understand instantly "this is a huge issue that still hurts a lot of people to this day from those regions and in America." I skimmed through the acknowledgments at the end when I was done with the book. This book feels so real, not like a novel at all. The people the author thanks are probably why. I hope to recommend this to others. ( )

This title caught my eye in a recent browse through the stacks at my library. It is described by Robert D. Kaplan, (who I feel should know better, despite his own shortcomings) as "Intimate, crushingly brutal, and beautiful". It's none of those things. It promises "an unforgettable portrait of how war forever changes the life of the individual". The author has a talent for language, but I don't believe she has any understanding of how war changes people, or she could not have written this lightweight treatment of its effect on a 10-year-old Croatian girl who survived a mass execution by following her father's last second instruction to fall into the pit with him and play dead. Nović told a story that should have torn the heart out of a marble statue, in easy to read prose that skips right along, and never touched my own beating pump organ. I could pick it apart in more detail, but there really isn't any point. I should have read a couple of the reviews on site and given it a pass. ( )

Many reviews mention the detached voice, the lack of depth of characterisation, and the telling of a story with an absence of emotion. It's an okay read. But it would have been so much better if the reader had been involved with the story. This is an appalling period of history that everyone on the planet should be ashamed of. The failure of this book to involve the reader is the saddest part of its telling.

On a personal note, I found the text deeply American in tone. As a European reading a European story this felt weird. From the outset, the central character was an American and not Croatian. That the character soon ended up in the USA came as no surprise and weakened further the book's opening.

I'm fairly sure the author has a story to tell here, and I think she was let down by her publishing team. Given a voice, this book could have been so much more. ( )

Helped me understand a bit of the idiosyncrasies of a country I loved visiting. ( )

Full Disclosure: This month I read 2 other books covering the same subject-Young girls caught up in the horrendous circumstance of War-In my opinion this one does not measure up. Thus the 2 stars, which I rarely give as I hardly ever finish one that is heading there.

The story begins in 1991 in Croatia with ten year old Ana as our Protagonist. Ana's childhood is soon overcome by civil war and she is witness to unfathomable war crimes. The first 1/3 of the book travels with Ana through the beginning of the war then abruptly shifts to 2001 where Ana is a college student in New York. This is the point where the story went bad for me. I was bound to it for a challenge or else it wold have gone into the DNF pile.

I am in the minority on GR's on this book, others may have enjoyed the extreme shift in writing style (the first 1/3-absorbing as you see the war through Ana's eyes-the last 2/3 YA fluff with an ending that could not possibly satisfy anyone).
( )