Inspired by real accounts and family history, Black Butterflies is an authentic tale of disintegration, resilience and hope. She studied at Cambridge University and the University of East Anglia, where she gained a PhD in Creative Writing. Since her husband is still in the UK, Zora begins to experience all the horrors that came with the war and bond with her neighbours. Set in 1992, Zora Kočović is an art professor who lives in Sarajevo with her husband, Franjo (a former journalist), and her 83 years old mother.

As the city falls under siege 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. Beautifully written and hauntingly evocative, Black Butterflies distils into a single consciousness a nation’s violent trauma and an artist’s sense of hope.Gradually, however, the making of art becomes something akin to an act of resistance, of cultural defiance and an example of a determination to ‘carry on’.

Yet, in changing circumstances we might lose everything we have, our possesions, our freedom, anything which make us human, overnight. The term "Black Butterflies" is used to describe the "burnt fragments of poetry and art catching in people's hair".It was mentioned in the Author's Note that Black Butterflies is inspired by Priscilla Morris's great-uncle's story (where her great-uncle, an artist, was devastated and vowed not to paint after the destruction of the Vijećnica, the National Library of Bosnia) and the rescue of Priscilla Morris's maternal grandparents by her father from the Siege of Sarajevo.

She grew up in London, spending summers in Sarajevo, and studied at Cambridge University and the University of East Anglia, where she gained her PhD in Creative Writing. At this point in time, Zora decided to stay in Sarajevo for her painting and her job while Franjo and her mother traveled to England to visit their daughter Dubravka. I also very thoroughly appreciated that this story helped to uplift the voices of a people seldom heard in mainstream media. Also highlighted is The Vijecnica, site of the University and (in) famous scene of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914. It had a vibrancy though and a carpe diem pulse to it that I imagine only a city and its inhabitants that have been to the brink can really comprehend.And when winter comes, bringing with it sub-zero tempratures, every day becomes a battle of survival.

Morris gets us to experience every little emotion with Zora—the shock, the hurt, the cold, the hunger, also the few moments of comfort or happiness snatched amidst it all. Hotjar sets this cookie to know whether a user is included in the data sampling defined by the site's daily session limit.The most devastating results in the death of innocent children and adults murdered while attempting to lead their “normal” and ordinary lives. Amongst the horror and deprivation, there are snatched moments of happiness: a shared meal assembled from scraps of food, the telling of stories around a makeshift fire, a ‘bring your own art’ exhibition, the warmth of another body next to yours. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Black Butterflies succeeds in showing how societies – and individual citizens – can indeed slide from safety to siege. Her apartment building, art studio (which sits above the library), are obliterated by the incessant bombing.