Beautifully written and hauntingly evocative, Black Butterflies distils into a single consciousness a nation’s violent trauma and an artist’s sense of hope.

Because I read the audiobook edition I wasn't able to read the Author's Note, but I found this article that explains how the novel relates to the author's family. Used books have different signs of use and might not include supplemental materials such as CDs, Dvds, Access Codes, charts or any other extra material. Counselors, teachers, and educators may find it a great resource for students in similar situations.

When 11-year-old Michelle is accidentally injured, a caseworker from Child Protective Services visits the family. Black Butterfly is the third and final novel in Mark Gatiss's Lucifer Box trilogy, which deals with the exploits of a bisexual British detective and secret agent.

Among other subjects, Zora loves to paint bridges and I thought often about those bridges as a metaphor for human connection and in terms of physical escape or entrapment. West, writing in 1993, talks about the shortcomings of both the political right and the political left and identifies the key issue as American Nihilism. I also appreciate the really concrete suggestions of the author for overcoming the “segrenomics” currently affecting most of the United States’ urban areas.The story starts with an element of denial which is also common in the World War11 stories I’ve read. When the fighting starts (1992), Zora’s mother and husband flee to England, leaving Zora in Sarajevo. Empathic and immersive, it’s a story of humanity and community in a war zone: a story of survival when everything seems to be falling apart. Her interviews and feature articles have appeared in numerous magazines,, national newspapers, and university publications.

The relative invisibility of black women on the left and in the arts in Baltimore is a little shocking at times. While we see and experience everything though Zora’s perspective, we also get a sense of the community—her neighbours particularly who turn into a source of much needed comfort and support for each other during the ordeal—while each also deals with their own problems.Knott offers an inspiring meditation on how we repair ourselves in the face of tragedy, trauma and injustice; on what it is to be a woman – and become a matriarch. There are many situations in the book that will show you a side of war you have hardly ever seen in fiction. Her husband and elderly mother leave for England, and she stays behind to continue working as an artist and teacher. The possibility of making a perilous escape from the city brings Zora hope that she might be reunited with her family but also a feeling of guilt for others left behind.

A few years after the event/s I became quite obsessed with the rolling wars that brought about the end of the former Yugoslavia, and read about it voraciously, but it was always the siege of Sarajevo that made my heart hurt the most. The Bosnian war of 1992–1995 was something I knew little about, and this book helped me get some context. It’s an informative novel allowing readers to develop compassion for refugees and those who seek asylum today. Reluctant to believe that hostilities will last more than a handful of weeks, she stays behind while the city falls under siege.With her we too watch as a rich, bustling, lovely city is plunged into war—as a relatively normal life (there is unrest already when the story opens) deteriorates into a struggle for day-to-day survival—a battle not only against the war and its weapons, but also against its impacts, whether lack of basic necessities or the elements or the constant insecurity and uncertainty. The ‘black butterflies’ are a brilliant example of this, an image which is poetic, tragic and literal all at once.