Girl at War

Ana is 10 years old when her country Croatia, in seeking independence from Yugoslavia, succumbs to civil war. Childhood games are replaced with the harsh new realities of air strikes, and enemy patrols and child soldiering. Through outside help, she and her younger sister manage to escape the war atrocities and are adopted by an American couple. 10 years later Ana is now a student in New York City, grappling with her complicated past. She decides she needs to visit, to locate the people she left behind, and to visit places of her childhood, that despite all the horror she had to experience, still hold a part of her.

Touching, in how it tells the story of the breakout of war through the eyes of a child, and in how it communicates ones feelings for family, home, and home country. The relationship between best childhood friends Ana and Luka was precious, and also resolved (left-open) in a rewarding way.