This is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical and public figures, are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real-life historical or public figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are entirely fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the entirely fictional nature of the work. In all other respects, any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2005 by Scott Simon

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

Random House and colophon are registered

trademarks of Random House, Inc.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Simon, Scott.

Pretty birds : a novel / Scott Simon.

p. cm.

1. Sarajevo (Bosnia and Hercegovina)—Fiction. 2. Yugoslav War, 1991–1995—Fiction. 3. Women soldiers—Fiction. 4. Teenage girls—Fiction. 5. Muslim girls—Fiction. 6. Snipers—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3619.I5626P74 2005

813′.6—dc22 2004061432

Random House website address: www.atrandom.com

Title page image by Marcie Jan Bronstein/nonstøck

eISBN: 978-1-58836-463-0

v3.0