Girl At War by Sara Novic [Narrated by Julia Whelan]

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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.
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First line:
The war in Zagreb began over a pack of cigarettes.
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Source:
audiobook from Libby
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Publisher:
Random House Audio
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Rating:
5 stars out of 5
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A haunting debut, Girl at War tells the story of Ana in alternating time lines as she experiences the Yugoslavian civil war as a 10 year old and then 10 years later, grappling with the trauma she experienced. Sara has done a beautiful job of weaving together Ana's life experiences and you will put this book down reflecting on many things; for me, particularly, it was refugee visas and what Ana's family had to go through in an attempt to leave a war torn country.

Julia Whelan's narration was perfect for this novel. Julia was able to provide so much emotion that brought this book to a whole other level.

This is a novel that everybody should be reading, as it analyzes little known history, grief, trauma, and how refugees and survivors of war come to grapple with their experiences. Girl at War is sure to impact your life.



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