"At that point – sometime in late March, it must have been – there were rumors of war, but nothing more, just uncertainty swirling round the valley of Sarajevo like a deadly vapor. No one knew what was happening. No one knew who or what to believe."
This novel is set predominantly during the Bosnian War of the 1990s. It is centered on the city most closely associated with that conflict. Sarajevo had famously hosted one of the most popular Winter Olympics ever in 1984. Less than a decade later, that highlight in the city's long history had transformed into its lowest point. What became known as the Siege of Sarajevo would begin in early April 1992. The key element of this passage is that even when rumors of war are swirling, there is a natural tendency for humans to believe it can't happen to them. The narration gives a glimpse into the mind specifically of the novel's protagonist, Zora, but it speaks on a wider plane to the consciousness of everybody caught in the whirlwind of uncertainty, rumors, and doubt. Soon enough, Zora's life will be completely transformed by the fog of war.
"Black butterflies, that is what people were calling these charred pages which continued to gust over Sarajevo for days after the fire, fragments of poetry catching in people’s hair."
The title of the novel derives from the transformation of everyday life mandated by that fog of war. The city's majestic library becomes the target of an assault by the army surrounding the city. With the destruction and subsequent fire which consumes the building, the books inside become casualties of war. The pages burn to a fragile crisp and are abducted by the winds which spread the black butterflies over the entire city before raining down on the citizens. The unnecessary targeting of a library for destruction in what is just another conflict which leaves the world basically unchanged afterward serves to underline the irrationality of war.
"Zora, having thought she would never paint again, found herself painting prolifically. Her series of fire paintings was executed rapidly, night by night...She had always painted slowly, building layer upon layer, most paintings taking months to complete, but now she finished her artworks in one sitting... When she had used all her canvases, she tore pages from books and used flattened humanitarian aid boxes. When her paints started to run out, she started incorporating other materials into her paintings – anything that was to hand: pigeon feathers, spent bullets, twisted bits of shrapnel, shattered glass."
Zora, the protagonist of the story, finds herself in a world turned upside-down as a result of war. Eventually, normality becomes as distant as any fantasy. In order to hold tight to her own sanity amidst the unleashing of insanity all around her, Zora finds relief and satisfaction in her art. She will not let even the lack of resources to continue her art deprive her of creating these acts of resistance. The collateral damage of war will inevitably include access to paint itself. When this happens, Zora's "fire paintings" still continue with replacement raw materials that range from pigeon feathers to shrapnel. The rapidity with which Zora is able to become more prolific than ever is a commentary on the savagery of war. The victims are not just soldiers and civilians caught in the crossfire. The victims of war are all those who, like Zora, are pressed to make the most of their time as a result of the knowledge that their time could end without warning in a flash of fire.
