‘In the Jasmine Shade’ opens the collection by plunging us into some of the nastiest events of the war. A young Bosnian Muslim couple are forced to leave their home along with other Muslims in the area. In a mosque they are separated into two groups, male and female. Lejla has not yet told her husband Marko that she is pregnant, and fears it might now be too late. The people who hold them, their former teachers, neighbours, school friends, tell them that nothing will happen to them. However, Lejla and her sister are taken with other women to a building, where teenage girls are taken away and raped. Lejla is taken away to a room where an old school friend of Markos eventually visits her, and she too is raped. Later, she is reunited first with her mother, and then with her husband. But her sister is gone, her fate unknown. ‘In the Jasmine Shade’ conveys the horrendous truth about war, that neighbour turns against neighbour, and evil is committed by ordinary people.

‘Surveillance’ is a very different story, told from the perspective of a man who is watching a woman in her apartment building. For some time he has been taking photographs of her, even in the most innocuous acts like washing her windows. These photographs will be shown to her later if she is called in for interrogation. She’s a dancer who is involved with an artist. But the artist is a dissident, and he is forced to leave the country. Once contact between the two is finally ended, that should in theory be the end of the surveillance, but the photographer is obsessed with her, and follows her. This story depicts a more subtle kind of menace, but the representation of such surveillance in a modern European city is equally disturbing. This is one of the best stories in the book.

‘Canis Lupis’ is one of the most unusual stories. There’s an ambiguity about the narrator - is he a man or a wolf? The story is set around a zoo where the animals are suffering from starvation because of the conflict, and some have been killed.

‘The Peacebroker’ is another gem and a black humoured account of the trials, tribulations and assignations of a diplomat in the Balkans. This story is full of irony and shows up the farcical mess of the war and the attempts of outsiders to sort it out. The peacekeeper got into the diplomatic service through seeing ‘The King and I’ as a child. Sadly, his fantasies of being welcomed by grateful natives have long gone up in smoke. He tries to negotiate cease-fires with the Serbs only for them to constantly break their promise. He tells them they’re making him look like an ass, while they ply him with alcohol. Later, they shell the city, causing a number of deaths, which are reported in the world media. The Serbs claim the city shelled itself. A UN team arrives and measures the crater. They decide the evidence is inconclusive. “Ruling out the possibility of self-immolation would be unwise at this juncture,” they pronounce. The diplomat is relieved, wanting to avoid further embarrassment. “One could always count on the UN in this type of situation,“ he thinks.

‘Afterdamp’ is one of the stories set in the US. A father and son from the Balkans are working with other immigrants in a mine in West Virginia. They send money home, and hope to go back there eventually. Some of the men in the camp have been there for years, having completely lost touch with their homes and families. Tragedy strikes in this story. It’s a credit to Brkic that she follows the plight of the war refugees further afield. It’s this switching of perspective that helps to tell a wider story about a devastated region and its peoples.

‘The Daughter’ meanwhile sees a young woman attending university. A note is pushed under her door. Believing it to be a love letter, she waits a few moments before lifting it up, savouring the possibilities. But the note is no love letter. Instead it says: Murderer’s daughter. As time goes on, more of these notes appear, together with downloaded articles from the internet on her father’s crimes. For as she finds out, he is guilty, and the consequences of his crimes are being visited on her, with tragic consequences.

‘Adiyo, Kerido’ follows an Argentine working on forensic excavations. His own past too is steeped in conflict - an uncle vanished during the Argentine Dirty War. His work as a forensic anthropologist has taken him into identifying bodies in Argentina, where his aunt asked him to tell her if he ever found the body of her husband. Similarly in the Balkans, women hover around the excavations and the clothes that have been recovered, washed, and hung out to dry. They look to see if they recognise any clothes, and one woman asks him to contact her if he ever finds her son.

These are just some of the stories that make up this wonderful collection (there are sixteen in all). With each story, the perspective changes, a new viewpoint is offered. Some stories are set during the conflict, others in the aftermath. ‘Stillness’ is a powerful book that gives a voice to the victims of war, and those who try to help them. Brkic has produced a first class collection.

Kara Kellar Bell is a film and media graduate from the West of Scotland, with a passion for European novels, French films, silent cinema, and Brazilian music (everything from Daniela Mercury and other pop stars through to bossa nova). As a writer, she likes to have room to move around creatively, so she’s not located in one genre. She writes realism and also stories of a more fantastic nature, usually grounded to some extent in the real world. She also takes delight in writing across the sexual spectrum, and as a bisexual, considers it important to remind people that things are not always black and white, either/or, in sexuality or in gender. She is currently completing her first novel. For a selection of Kara’s writing on the Showcase section of this site, click here

© 2005 Laura Hird All rights reserved.