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Erica’s Pick of the Week: The Quiet Librarian

Cover of The Quiet Librarian by Allen Eskens; a woman in a green cardigan with her back to the viewer, holding a red book behind her back.

Hana Babić keeps herself to herself. A middle-aged librarian in Minnesota, she has a collection of cardigans and more cows than friends. But when her best friend is murdered, Hana’s carefully contained world begins to crack open. She’s convinced Amina’s death is connected to their shared history in the Bosnian War, and that the demons of the past have returned to hunt them both down. Desperate to protect Amina’s grandson and find the killer, Hana must become who she was during the war: Nura Divjak, the Night Mora. A militia fighter of near-mythical proportions, feared by Serbian soldiers and branded a war criminal, she has remade herself into the stereotypical mousy librarian. Thirty years later, can Hana remake herself into the Night Mora one more time? And what will be the cost? In The Quiet Librarian, Allen Eskens examines ideas of revenge and forgiveness through the prism of a single person’s wartime experience.

Nura’s transformation from Yugoslavian farm girl to storied killer unfolds alongside Hana’s current-day hunt for justice in alternating chapters. As war breaks out near her family’s mountain home, tragedy sets Nura on a new path. She finds refuge and purpose with the Bosnian militia, fighting against the atrocities committed by the Serbian army in the weeks leading up to the massacre at Srebrenica. In the present, Hana searches for the murderer amid mounting danger and a desperate attempt to keep her true identity secret. The two stories come together in a way that is both unexpected and satisfying.

This story is propulsive – there’s not a wasted word or scene in the book, and even more contemplative moments serve to deepen Hana’s character. There’s a genuine tension between who she is at the beginning of the book, before the horrors of war set in, and who she chooses to become by the end, as she deals with the trauma she has endured. Eskens takes an unflinching look at the bleakness and brutality of the Bosnian War, which can make for difficult reading – sensitive readers should be aware. But it also asks questions about justice, retribution, and healing that will linger after the last page – and are still relevant, thirty years later. For fans of Northern Spy by Flynn Berry, or other emotionally intense thrillers, The Quiet Librarian has much to offer.


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