A touching story about friendship, the power of books to bring people together, and finding the courage to live fully and truthfully.
Skilfully written with the compassion and insight I’ve come to expect from this author, each of the main characters is well realised and I was carried along, willing each of them to find the happiness and release they deserve. The bravery of ordinary people facing battles of various kinds is highlighted in the very different characters of Claire, Luna, Karmela and Vedran. Some familiar names from a previous book popped up and made me smile, but you don’t need to have read anything by this author before to fully enjoy this one.
Once again I was transported to Croatia by the beautiful writing. Its sights, sounds, smells and flavours made me wish I was in Dubrovnik in springtime, and not in the midst of a cold, wet British winter.

Five stars
“Good people. Beautiful, flawed, wonderful people with baggage…”


This book starts with a bang within a dramatic prologue: “Help me. Help me, please. My girlfriend went swimming two hours ago and she hasn’t come back.”
I was hooked and pulled in further by the intriguing characters who are all involved, one way or another, with a bookshop in the medieval quarter of Dubrovnik and who gradually bond in friendship.
Eva Glyn’s writing gets better and better. I love this book with substance. All of the personalities have problems and their stories interlink as they join a book club and as the story develops, they discover their own stories together along the way.
We have Claire with her “germ-obsessed head”. She needs to lose her fear of Covid; has to “recapture… joy in life for herself” – not easy in a confined space.
We also have Claire’s uncle Vedran – and I loved the mystery surrounding him that was introduced in the prologue: Didi – the missing girlfriend. What did he do to her? Is she dead? How did she die? Is he a good man? The press have massacred his reputation. Can he recover? He and his niece have become “a couple of hermits”, with their problems. Will they liberate their demons? Vedran doesn’t know if he will ever be able to “tell anyone the whole truth about how it was.” And the tension continues with this strand throughout the book. I wanted to know more… it made me turn the pages.
There is delightful Luna “who dreamed of tolerance, laughter and excitement and the opportunity to make new friends…” away from her bigoted upbringing in the countryside. Luna, the “butterfly” is probably my favourite character: complex, confused, thwarted, needing to escape her narrow-minded background. She’s frightened of her feelings. “Don’t be frightened of pain, because without it you will never know joy.” another protagonist (Karmela) tells her.

Professor Karmela Simic from Sarajevo, a Bosnian, born a Yugoslavian, now living in Croatia, studies history and the divisions of the past. Burrowing into history makes her feel safer. History is like a “weapon” for her – the only thing she can fight with. I enjoyed viewing the antiquity and architectural details of the beautiful ancient city through her eyes. She is particularly interested in the Ragusans, part of a period of history she wants to study more – the civilization that had ruled Dubrovnik in medieval times. She too has trauma in her past that has held her back for thirty years.
Rafael – a drinker and a huge character – an unlikely friend to Karmela – a fighter from the recent war. He’s not a big reader, but the book club becomes for him “a place of sanctuary” as he tries to dumb down his time as a “Dubrovnik Defender” in his younger years.
There is Ezra too – the techy geek who is a useful character in helping the club in developments that arise to thwart its future. I found him less memorable, but nevertheless, he is an important part of the story.

I love that the themes of the books the club members select for each month are in turn reflected in their modern-day stories. (Read the author's notes on this at the end of the book). “That’s the essence of a book club, isn’t it? Trying different things…” and the discussions help work out, winkle out, problems and issues all these characters have.
“So much of what should be out in the open is brushed under the carpet. It’s good to talk about these things,” says Claire.
There is lots of delicious food – savoury flaky pastry delights, fish stews, comfort food of all kinds. I need to visit Croatia to savour for myself.
I highlighted several wonderful descriptions but will only cite one as this review is already too wordy: “Greenfinches flitted between the trees, the yellow flashes on their wings catching the pale morning sunlight as the silvery leaves rustled in the gentlest of breezes.”
It’s an optimistic book – There is “love for everyone and love to spare.” I learned a lot from reading this story and I highly commend it. Five stars.
I was lucky to receive an early issue and I thank the publisher. My review is unbiased and my own opinion.

Another beautiful book from Eva Glyn. This book whisks you away to Croatia and allows you to wander through the city of Dubrovnik surrounded by the old stone walls and centuries of history.
The novel centres around an old book shop, and a book club that Claire the manager is running. Each part of the book is separated into the book club’s read that month, so you can see why this novel is every reader’s idea of heaven. The authors does a fab job of bringing this bookshop to life and even though it’s fictional, it is somewhere I am now desperate to visit and happily lose myself in for hours.
Each of the main protagonists - and there are four - is carrying hurt from their past: one of which is a mystery that needs to be unravelled, one of which is truly a tale of modern times, one is a story that sensitively illustrates the cultural differences that still exist between some countries in Europe and the UK (where the book was written and published) and one is a touching account that relates back to the Yugoslav wars of the 90’s which shows how ‘War damages us all in different ways’. Together they try and find some answers and as they become closer, the more they open up - allowing them each to face their demons and begin to live truthfully.
This book is a beautiful tale of friendship and belonging, of support and non-judgement and has history, romance, and mystery all the way through. Being an Eva Glyn book, it can be relied upon to pull the reader in deep with immersive and evocative settings and snippets of wisdom deftly, and naturally, woven in. Captivating, poignant and wise, I absolutely loved it.