On the Red Horse, Peter and Paul: A Small Book about a Big War

When the world is turned upside down, when a man is overcome by the cataclysm of war thrust into his life, his reaction will reveal his true personality. Because he will not act according to an adopted pattern, neither according to the recommendations of the politicians, nor according to the reaction of the majority he will act according to his congenital affinity and his nature. This book by Helena Pericic is that kind of testimony: of one’s discintiveness. –Vesna Krmpotic

Until recently, the writing of war diaries or dispatches was often the preserve of men. Helena Peri i has broken the mould in this regard. She has used her pen to dig through the blood-soaked ground, the shattered detritus of war and hatred. Her diaries, her dispatches call them what you will relate to the tragic events that circumscribed the Homeland War, the battle for independence which the Croatian people fought in the early 1990s. Strangely, this war is one which is already forgotten in the Western European imaginary. Her writing calls us back, however. It remonstrates with us; it demands that we remember and give testimony. Pericic’s writing is beautiful and perceptive. It is evocative. In an age when the beauty of the world is forgotten it reminds us of the power that is the written word. It is living, breathing poetry. –Micheal O hAodha, writer, Limerick, Ireland