Stillness

Item: Stillness
Author: WhichBook

Courtney Brkic

These beautifully written stories of war in the former Yugoslavia, are so disturbing that I could only read one at a time, and yet so compelling that I kept returning to them. Each is so different and covers every aspect of war from many perspectives. Not a comfortable read but certainly thought provoking.

Extract

Tonight, I sleep fitfully, the exploding shell a grim reminder of what it would be to die in confinement. In my sleep I near the crest of a hill while the city falls away behind me .... From the top of the hill I can see only forest, rising from black, fragrant soil. The voices of my pack are clear and carry across the winter silence. The sound of my own relived cries awakens me.

Parallels

Rearranging the World: A Contemporary Anthology of Literature in Translation by Josephine Balmer (ed)
Some Corner of a Foreign Field: Poetry of the Great War by James Bentley (ed)
Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler