What happens when the person you love stands on the opposite side of a conflict?
For Hilary Green, author of A Call to Home, that question sits at the heart of a story where personal relationships become entangled with the political and military divisions of wartime Yugoslavia.
Green describes her website as Stories of Love and War, a fitting description of the approach behind her Yugoslavia trilogy. Her technique is straightforward but powerful: give the principal characters something or someone they deeply love, then place obstacles between them and that love.
Love Becomes More Complicated in a Divided World
In A Call to Home, Alex and Steve find themselves on opposing sides. Alex is with the Partisans, while Steve is connected to the Chetniks.
That division immediately creates more than a romantic obstacle.
The characters are not simply trying to maintain a relationship while living in different places. Their loyalties place them within opposing factions during a period of conflict, making every personal decision carry wider consequences.
Green takes that tension even further by connecting Alex's political position to her family.
Alex supports the communist Partisans, while her father is an ardent royalist and supporter of the Chetniks. Her personal relationships therefore become inseparable from the larger divisions surrounding her.
From Physical Danger to Moral Conflict
One of Green's most interesting insights is that physical danger alone is not enough to create meaningful tension.
Her characters also need a moral quandary.
That distinction gives the conflict in A Call to Home another layer. A character can survive a dangerous situation, but what happens when every available choice affects someone they love or conflicts with something they believe?
For Alex, the divisions surrounding the Partisans and Chetniks are not simply external events. They reach directly into her relationships and family.
The result is a situation where love, loyalty, identity, and survival can pull a character in completely different directions.
Stories of Love and War
Green's approach demonstrates why historical conflict can become such a powerful setting for personal storytelling.
Large political and military events provide the environment, but the emotional stakes come from the individuals living through them.
A conflict becomes more immediate when readers understand what a character has to lose. A political division becomes personal when it separates people who care about one another. And a difficult decision becomes truly consequential when there is no option that leaves everyone untouched.
That combination of love and conflict is central to Green's storytelling.
The Human Story Behind the History
Historical fiction often gives readers an opportunity to experience major events through individual lives.
In A Call to Home, the divisions surrounding wartime Yugoslavia are not simply historical background. They shape the choices available to the characters and place their relationships under extraordinary pressure.
Green's craft insight offers a useful reminder for writers: put characters in a situation where what they love and what they believe are forced into conflict, then give them choices that matter.
That is where tension becomes personal.
About Hilary Green
Hilary Green is the author of A Call to Home and the Yugoslavia trilogy. Her writing brings together stories of love and war, placing personal relationships against the backdrop of historical conflict.
Her approach to storytelling centers on characters whose relationships are tested by the circumstances surrounding them, creating stories where emotional and historical stakes intersect.
Know more about Hilary Green
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This feature is based on Hilary Green's own comments about her approach to writing and the characters in A Call to Home.
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