Infidelities | Josip Novakovich

As Serb, Croat, and Bosnian Muslim armies clash in the cities and countryside of the former Yugoslavia, it's impossible to delineate the home front from the front lines. In "Ribs, " a Croatian widow goes to desperate lengths to keep her son out of the army. A Buddhist soldier in the Bosnian Muslim military is falsely accused of being an enemy informer after his detachment ambushes itself in "Hail. " A draft dodger is in the hospital for a transplant in "A Purple Heart, " when a Croatian general steals the heart for himself. In "Spleen, " a Bosnian émigrécannot find release from the haunting memories of her homeland. The stories in Infidelities cover a broad sweep of time, from the first shots of World War I fired in Sarajevo to the plight of Balkan immigrants in contemporary America. Throughout, acts of compassion, dark humor, and even desire arise from a landscape devastated by tragedy.