Title: Girl at War  

Author: Sara Novic  

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher: Random House

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 320

Rating: 5/5 stars

Synopsis (Goodreads):

Zagreb, summer of 1991. Ten-year-old Ana Jurić is a carefree tomboy who runs the streets of Croatia’s capital with her best friend, Luka, takes care of her baby sister, Rahela, and idolizes her father. But as civil war breaks out across Yugoslavia, soccer games and school lessons are supplanted by sniper fire and air raid drills. When tragedy suddenly strikes, Ana is lost to a world of guerilla warfare and child soldiers; a daring escape plan to America becomes her only chance for survival.

Ten years later Ana is a college student in New York. She’s been hiding her past from her boyfriend, her friends, and most especially herself. Haunted by the events that forever changed her family, she returns alone to Croatia, where she must rediscover the place that was once her home and search for the ghosts of those she’s lost.

Review:

Last book review of January!

Loved this book! I haven’t read many books that talk about the Yugoslavian war that occurred in the 90s, so it was great to read a novel that provides an interesting perspective into the conflict.

Ana is a ten year old Croatian who experienced trauma in the civil war. Flash forward ten years and she is a 20 years old who must face her trauma in order to move on with her life.

My heart really went out to Ana and her family. No child should have to experience that type of trauma and conflict, and I think it’s important to talk about and teach these things so that we can understand what’s going on in our world.

I also found the perspective on the UN interesting in that Ana felt like the UN was useless in the situation and that they didn’t help when they should have. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in reading about events that happened not too long ago, and from such an interesting perspective.

Happy reading!