Sara Novic's Girl at War
This first novel from Novic centers on a ten-year-old girl in Zagreb at the start of the Croatian War for Independence, and it gets pretty dark, as you might imagine (she is briefly a child soldier). It also flashes forward to ten years later, when she's a college student in New York during 9/11, still unable to deal with her childhood traumas. The story flashes back and forth a bit more, fleshing out her story as she attempts to come to terms with the tragedies in her past. I will say, I was surprised when it ended, and was left wishing for more. Not that the ending shouldn't be up in the air--it's not like trauma /has/ an ending really--but I was really enjoying her journey and would have liked to see it go further. Still a solid read--Novic's language occasionally veers toward the melodramatic, but that's not really out of place. B+.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book is available now.
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