Publication Date February 18, 2025
Back in 2014, I read The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens, at that time an author I’d never heard of. I loved it! But for some reason, I didn’t read anything else by Eskens until 2023, when I read and enjoyed Saving Emma. I also didn’t know that The Life We Bury had been the first in a series, which includes The Shadows We Hide and The Stolen Hours. But when I read that Mr. Eskens was coming out with a new book (The Quiet Librarian) that included a storyline about The Bosnian War of the 1990s, I thought back to how much I loved the way the storyline in The Life We Bury included the way the Vietnam war affected one of the main characters, and thought “I HAVE TO READ THAT BOOK!” I had no clue what “librarian” had to do with anything, but as a retired librarian, the title was a plus for me.
A few things about my experience with the book. For starters, it is WONDERFUL. Also, my knowledge of the war in Bosnia was (and is) unbelievably limited. I had a vague idea it took place during the Clinton administration and that it had some religious component and was in an area where Yugoslavia used to be…and when I write that, my lack of awareness is even more pathetic than I thought.
This is a story with multiple timelines, but it isn’t one of those where you have to stop and think about WHO is this person and WHEN is this happening. It’s really two stories, with two separate timelines. The book begins in present day Minnesota where a woman named Hana Babic just wants to be left alone as she works as a librarian, with a very small circle of friends including her best friend Amina. When Amina is murdered by being thrown off an upper-floor balcony, Hana is determined to find out who was responsible and why. When police contact Hana for help in finding answers, the story really gets rolling.
Hana and Amina had immigrated to the U.S. during the Bosnian War, and each of them had many secrets and memories of horrible trauma. They had experienced (and, in some cases, committed) atrocities and the fallout may have followed them until the present day. As the story goes back and forth from the 1990s until now, secrets are exposed, revealing clearly both the who and why surrounding Amina’s death.
The characters are well-drawn, beginning with the childhood of a schoolgirl in Bosnia: “There were few Muslims in her school and only her in her class, but such things didn’t matter…” . After a horrific experience, things were very black and white for one of the girls: “Turn right and become a refugee. Turn left and be a hunter. Nura turned left.”
By the time I was near the end of the book and the resolution of the mystery, I was buried in the experiences of the girls, and very affected by the comments one makes about the war: “The world doesn’t care…It never cared…The Serbs slaughtered eight thousand men and boys in Srebrenica–took them into the woods and shot them. The men who pulled the triggers will never face justice.” It is so well written and reminded me why I loved the way Mr. Eskens can create characters who become REAL and who the reader truly cares about. With thanks to Mulholland Books and NetGalley, this one is definitely FIVE stars (only because that is the maximum).