I have become a big fan of Allen Eskens and I look forward to reading his latest book and this one did not disappoint. Hana, a very quiet, forgettable, middle aged librarian lives a very small life in Minnesota. She keeps to herself and rarely goes anywhere. Told in two different timelines between the present in Minnesota and the past in Bosnia, the reader finds out that she lived a very different life when she was young that she has kept hidden for most of her life, When Hana finds out that her friend has been murdered she has to find out what happened and her previous life is slowly revealed. While reading this book, I learned a lot about the Bosnian War that took place from 1992-1995. I highly recommend this book.
Thank you NetGalley and Mulholland Books for an ARC of this book.

Powerful story of war, violence, revenge and justice. Hana watched her family be murdered during the Bosnian-Serbian war. She vowed then to track down the killers and avenge her mother, father and little brother. She joined up with the Bosnian guerillas, picked up some deadly skills, and actually did kill two of the three men she was seeking. She thought she had killed the third man, too. By that time she was a legendary fighter and had a price on her head. She was sent to America with a new identity to live a quiet life as a meek librarian in Minneapolis. The book flips between Hana's current life in Minnesota, and her involvement in the war in 1995.

She escaped with a friend who had been a prisoner in one of the infamous rape camps. Her friend gave birth after coming to America and she and Hana remained close. Time passed, the friend's daughter died and the friend was raising her young grandson.

Both Amina and Hana bore heavy scars, emotional and physical. Amina saw a therapist and Hana took out her trauma in her basement gym where she became again the fierce fighter she had been. Years passed when Hana's existence is upended one day by a police detective informing her Amina had been murdered and her apartment ransacked. The detective is a decent man but Hana has reverted to lone avenger thinking. She is concerned that she is still wanted for murder and could be sent back to stand trial so she is reluctant to share information with the detective. Plus, she has not shared her past stories and doesn't want to open herself up to that.

The rest of the story is Hana investigating secretly, the detective trying to figure out what is happening, and the search for the killer with a 3o year old motive. But it is the characters who are compelling. The war part of the story is brutal and violent but told simply and factually. We are left to imagine how anyone can overcome these sorts of traumas and keep living.

The final scenes are searing but despite everything, there is some hope in this book for the future and for Hana. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The Quiet Librarian
By: Allen Eskens

5 Stars

I have read lots of stories about war. But this was a first for me. It really hit hard. This book is really two stories that convene together. The before a time of war in Bosnia, where men, women, and children are slaughtered and abused. Then, the after when Hana is on the search for her friends killer and becomes the caregiver to her little boy, Dylan. Hiding has been what she knows, but it's time to come out of the shadows to protect him.

Wow. This book was written in a very descriptive way. It painted such a vivid picture of this war, a dark and tragic picture. It could be hard to read, but it was very informative. I loved the characters in this story hana, Nura, Adem. Each was strong and survived in their own way.
The after story brought hope and survival with Hana facing a past long overdue.

This story was one that was emotional and captivating. It will break your heart while slowly dropping bits of warmth in. It is a book that needs to be read. I never knew that this type of war could happen, and in 1995? Wow. It made me want to know more. It touched my heart and mind. It was full of action and drama. It was an amazing story.

*I want to thank Netgalley and the author for this book in return for my honest review*

Stormi Ellis
Boundless Book Review

Thank you to Mulholland Books for this eARC and chance to review. It took me a little to get into this book. However I feel like that is how it is with any historical fiction books. I was not aware of most of the events that took place in Bosnia during this time and found it very interesting. I felt like Eskens did a great job looping in factual information with Hana's story. I have read most of the books Allen Eskens has written and love his style and this one ranks up with The Life We Bury and The Stolen Hours. I highly recommend those as well as The Quiet Librarian.

Thank you to #netgalley and @MullhollandBooks for this ARC. 1992 - Bosnian Muslims and Christian Orthodox Serbs are in a civil war. Nura, hiding from under the porch, watches her entire family killed by Serbs and vows to avenge their deaths.
Present Day: Hana is a quiet librarian in Minnesota when a local detective comes to tell her that her best friend was murdered. What he doesn't know is Hana's and her best friend Amina's past has come back to haunt them.
Hana has to find the murderer before he finds her.
This book. It will sit with me for a long time just as The Women by Kristin Hannah did. This Bosnian War, a real war in my lifetime, had the biggest count of genocide since WW2. The incidents of murder and rape were unconscionable. In that same thread, Eskens did an amazing job of writing this story for all to understand. Read it! #TheQuietLibrarian #AllenEskens #MullhollandBooks #Feb2025
PS: If you haven't read The Life We Bury by Eskens, add that to your list too!

I didn't know what to expect when I picked up The Quiet Librarian. At first the pacing felt slow, but as soon as I learned more about Hana, I was hooked. I didn't know much about the historical events that this novel was based on and I often found myself putting down the book to google and research more about Bosnia. I thought the writing was strong in this book. I haven't read any other Allen's novel, but now I definitely want to look into his other novels.

I'd recommend this to any historical fiction fan, who's looking for suspension filled pages.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC !

Another brilliant book by one of my favorite authors, Allen Eskens. This is both a suspense and historical fiction and will appeal to readers of both. Unlike his other books, this is set both in the U.S. and years before in war-torn Bosnia. Eskens is such a skilled writer and his dual time periods create a miasma of suspense that is both heart-wrenching and entertaining. The characters are well-drawn and their experiences will bring readers right to the ugly throes of war. There is much to discuss with this and it is ideal for book clubs. For fans of Kristin Hannah and Fiona Davis.

Hana is a quiet librarian living a simple life in Minnesota. Then her best friend is killed while holding an object that only Hana will recognize. Hana also receives guardianship of her friends young grandson. Now Hana must confront her past during the Bosnian-Serbian war and try to find out who killed her friend and if she and the grandson are at risk. While not in great detail, some of the scenes during the war can be difficult. Hana is a strong character and the story is well plotted and paced..

Thank you to NetGalley and Mulholland Books for the ARC. Another great book by Allen Eskens told in two timelines. I love reading his books and this one did not disappoint. I was surprised at the ending but it was great. Worth the read as always.

Hana leads a quiet life as a librarian until the day a detective walks in and tells her that her best, and only, friend Amina has been murdered. Torn between helping the friendly detective and keeping her past buried, Hana searches for Amina's murderer to keep herself and Amina's orphaned grandson safe. Alternating between Hana's present in Minnesota and teenage Nura's during the war between Serbia and Bosnia in 1995, The Quiet Librarian is a tense story of survival when the world is showing you the worst of humanity. I was also a teenager in 1995, one who didn't watch world news and had no clue about this war beyond the fact that it was happening. While a work of fiction, it's rooted in factual events, and thinking about the reality is crushing.

What happens to refugees when they settle in a new land with the inner trauma of the past still resonating? When the past refuses to stay in the past? That is the challenge that Hana Babic faces after leaving the Bosnian/Serbian conflict in the 1990s and making a new life for herself as a librarian in Minnesota. But when her close friend and compatriot Amina dies under suspicious circumstances, leaving behind her grandson Dylan, the horrors of the past return.
While the world has moved on from the civil war that broke up Yugoslavia, people like Hana still carry the scars--literal, mental and emotional--that make her the person she is. As she teams up with the detective assigned to the case concerning her friend, David Claypool, the story of her life unfolds in a dual timeline of the past and the present. How that past and present intersect and what happens when they do make for a fascinating, dark, and suspenseful story. This is well worth the read.

I have enjoyed everything I’ve read from Allen Eskens and The Quiet Librarian is no exception. In fact, I believe this to be my favorite, to date. The novel is a compelling story that is part historical fiction, part mystery, part love story and all encompassing.

Told in dual timelines of 1995 Bosnia and current day Minnesota, the main character, Hana, is a quiet, almost invisible middle aged librarian with a surprising past. Upon finding out that her best friend was murdered, Hana suspects their past has caught up with them. The alternating timelines are each equally engrossing and the author puts a human perspective to a terrible war. The main character is strong, smart, vengeful and resilient.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and Mulholland Books for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

An unputdownable story of a middle aged librarian who was forced to flee her home country during the Bosnian Genocide of the 1990s. All these years later, she is living quietly, working in Minnesota, when her complicated past comes back to haunt her. Once again, she must do whatever it takes to survive, and to protect those she loves. A great read on a historical topic that is seldom written about in fiction.

Much better than I thought it would be. Well written. Liked the author's other books too. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

Completely different from the other books I've read by Allen Eskens. Historical fiction about the wars in Bosnia in 1995. I didn't know a lot about this war. This is a heartbreaking story about love and survival and the lengths people will go to for revenge and protection of their love ones. Hana Babic is a quiet, shy librarian in St Paul, but you should never judge a book by its cover. She is soooo much more than that. I love how Eskens wrote the book in dual POVs ... alternating present and past with each chapter. I recommend going into this book blind. Know that it isn't an easy read, but it is worth it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Allen Eskens, and Mulholland Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I always enjoy an Allen Eskens story. This one gives you a front-row seat to what life was like during the Bosnian war. With narratives from the Bonian war and present day, Eskens weaves a tail of war crimes that keeps you moving through the story.

Hana Babic is a quiet, middle-aged librarian in Minnesota who wants nothing more than to be left alone. But when a detective arrives with the news that her best friend has been murdered, Hana knows that something evil has come for her, a dark remnant of the past she and her friend had shared.

Thirty years before, Hana was someone else: Nura Divjak, a teenager growing up in the mountains of war-torn Bosnia—until Serbian soldiers arrived to slaughter her entire family before her eyes. The events of that day thrust Nura into the war, leading her to join a band of militia fighters, where she became not only a fierce warrior but a legend—the deadly Night Mora. But a shattering final act forced Nura to flee to the United States with a bounty on her head.

This book. Incredible. Looking at the cover and the title, you think of your local middle-aged librarian. Nice quiet life. This was a huge surprise to me, and I loved every second of it. I have many friends from that time and place in the world, and I know more about it than most Americans, but the crimes committed were horrendous. The courage and bravery it took for Nura as a teenager, the fact that she came to Minnesota and lived a relatively peaceful life there… Fantastic book. Pick this one up! 4.5⭐

I received an advanced complimentary digital copy of this book from Netgalley. Opinions expressed are my own.

This is the first book that I have read by Alan Eskens. It was absolutely amazing. Set in both present day and in 1995 Bosnia, this story takes the reader on a journey through war and its effect on present day. I highly recommend this for grades 11 and up.
5 sters

Personally wasn’t for me. There seemed to be a lot of jumping in the story. Like the author was trying to fit a puzzle piece where it doesn’t go. Tried to force certain things into the plot so the ending made sense.

I have read all of Eskens' books and this one is the very best! His character development was fantastic as was the plot. I loved how he transitioned between present time and the past. He created a realistic struggle between good and evil in an unlikely character. This story reminded me somewhat of Hannah's "The Nightingale" which is a favorite of mine. I loved the strong female character and the friendship between her and the detective. 5 STARS!!!