BOOK REVIEW OF “THE STONE FIELDS”
The fantastically talented Courtney Angela Brkic wrote “The Stone Fields – An Epitaph for the Living,” a book that will grab you from page one. The powerful story will make you cry, laugh, think and feel. Brkic wrote her fascinating family saga interwoven with 21st Century Croatian history.
The beauty of Brkic’s true story is how all of us Croatians can relate to it. A devout Catholic family with numerous children tries to raise them despite most severe conditions. Barefoot, hungry and sickly only the strongest children survive to scramble for a better life.
The heart of Brkic’s book is the bittersweet love story of her grandmother Angela from Herzegovina and Sarajevo Jew who was shot in the back by Ustase in Jasenovac concentration camp. Her aunt Ljubica dying a slow death after her beloved Ante joined Ustase and tragically died in Bleiberg.
Brkic joined a forensic team working in Bosnia & Herzegovina. She excavated the bodies of people killed in the massacre of Srebrenica, assisted pathologists with autopsies, and arranged personal effects for photographing. The book includes most tragic events of Vukovar, mass rapes and killings. “The Stone Fields” explores how the devastating consequences of war linger for generations.
Brkic is also the author of “Stillness,” a book of short stories for which she won a prestigious Whiting Writers’ Award. She has worked for the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague and for Physicians for Human Rights. She is a graduate of the famed Master of Fine Arts Degree program at New York University.
Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux www.fsgbooks.com $24.00
