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BLACK BUTTERFLIES

A classic cautionary tale of contemporary relevance.

The human costs of the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s are recounted in a compelling debut.

Zora, a 55-year-old painter and art instructor, lives a busy life  in Sarajevo with her older husband, Franjo. When, during the early days of the partisan conflict, the family’s equanimity is upset by squatters trying to take possession of Zora’s mother’s apartment, Zora and Franjo decide that he will accompany her mother on an earlier-than-planned visit to their daughter and son-in-law (and beloved granddaughter) in England. Unable to believe or comprehend that the military action beginning to envelope the city will last for very long, Zora stays behind to watch the family’s properties and continue her work. Over the course of the following year, Zora struggles to survive as battling factions fight for control of a city that had previously been marked by the calm cohabitation of residents of various nationalities and religions. As residents of her apartment building band together in mutual support after the city loses telephone, electric, and water services, Zora resorts to desperate means to survive the quickly developing brutal circumstances. Faced with no way to escape the freezing weather, dwindling food supplies, and the constant danger of bombardment, Zora finds her lifelong artistic endeavors curtailed. Based on two episodes in her family’s history during the siege, Morris’ account of finding strength in human connection and artistic creation illustrates the cultural, social, and human damage caused by the internecine Balkan conflict. The chronicle of Zora’s ordeal, while sobering, contains episodes of page-turning uncertainty and heartbreaking pathos.

A classic cautionary tale of contemporary relevance.

Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2024

ISBN: 9780593801857

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2024

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CIRCLE OF DAYS

Vintage Follett. His fans will be pleased.

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  • New York Times Bestseller

A dramatic, complex imagining of the origins of Stonehenge.

In about 2500 B.C.E. on the Great Plain, Seft and his family collect flints in a mine. He dislikes the work, and the motherless lad hates the abuse he gets from his father and brothers. He leaves them and arrives at a wooden monument where sacred events such as the Midsummer Rite take place. There are also circles of stones that help predict equinoxes, solstices, even eclipses. This is a world where the customary greeting is “May the Sun God smile on you,” and everyone is a year older on Midsummer Day. Except for a priestess or two, no one can count beyond fingers and toes—to indicate 30, they show both hands, point to both feet, then show both hands again. Casual sex is common, and sex between women is less common but not taboo. Joia, a young woman who becomes a priestess, wonders about her sexuality. After a fire destroys the Monument, she leads a bold effort to rebuild it in stone. To please the gods, they must haul 10 giant stones from distant Stony Valley. Of course neither machinery nor roads exist, so the difficulties are extraordinary. Although the project has its detractors, hundreds of able-bodied people are willing to help. Craftspeople known as cleverhands construct a sled and a road, and they make the rope to wrap around the stones. Many, many others pull. And pull. Meanwhile, the three principal groups—farmers, woodlanders, and herders—all have their separate interests. There is talk of war, which Joia has never seen in her lifetime. Soon it seems inevitable that the powerful farmers will not only start one but win it, unless heroes like Seft and Joia can come up with a creative plan. But there is also the matter of love for Joia in this well-plotted and well-told yarn. The story has a lot of characters from multiple tribes, and they can be hard to keep track of. A page in the front of the book listing who’s who would be helpful.

Vintage Follett. His fans will be pleased.

Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025

ISBN: 9781538772775

Page Count: 704

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025

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HEART THE LOVER

That college love affair you never got over? Come wallow in this gorgeous version of it.

A love triangle among young literati has a long and complicated aftermath.

King’s narrator doesn’t reveal her name until the very last page, but Sam and Yash, the brainy stars of her 17th-century literature class, call her Jordan. Actually, at first they refer to her as Daisy, for Daisy Buchanan of The Great Gatsby, but when they learn she came to their unnamed college on a golf scholarship, they change it to Jordan for Gatsby’s golfer friend. The boys are housesitting for a professor who’s spending a year at Oxford, living in a cozy, book-filled Victorian Jordan visits for the first time after watching The Deer Hunter at the student union on her first date with Sam. As their relationship proceeds, Jordan is practically living at the house herself, trying hard not to notice that she’s actually in love with Yash. A Baptist, Sam has an everything-but policy about sex that only increases the tension. The title of the book refers to a nickname for the king of hearts from an obscure card game the three of them play called Sir Hincomb Funnibuster, and both the game and variations on the moniker recur as the novel spins through and past Jordan’s senior year, then decades into the future. King is a genius at writing love stories—including Euphoria (2014), which won the Kirkus Prize—and her mostly sunny version of the campus novel is an enjoyable alternative to the current vogue for dark academia. Tragedies are on the way, though, as we know they must be, since nothing gold can stay and these darn fictional characters seem to make the same kinds of stupid mistakes that real people do. Tenderhearted readers will soak the pages of the last chapter with tears.

That college love affair you never got over? Come wallow in this gorgeous version of it.

Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025

ISBN: 9780802165176

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Grove

Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025

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