Homecoming — Natasha Radojcic-Kane

When Halid, a Muslim war hero, returns home after the Bosnian War, he finds that his own battles have just begun. Although his village was spared from heavy combat, it is a panorama of scarcity and decay. Over the course of three days, Halid wanders in search of those who remain. Altered, disoriented, and confused, he experiences his town as a shifting landscape of new alliances and old grievances. There is no room for error in this time of upheaval, and Halid's missteps threaten to pull him into a spiral of insanity and tragedy. This vivid, lyrical debut novel resonates with the timeless folktale voice of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the psychological intensity of Jerzy Kosinski's The Painted Bird.