The title of The Quiet Librarian got my interest, but the strong main character and the Bosnian War's ongoing effects on the characters kept me reading. It was a great combination of compelling characters and suspense.

Told in dual timelines with alternating chapters, The Quiet Librarian describes two periods of time in Hana's life: (1) her experiences before and during the brutalities and genocide of the Bosnian War in the 1990s and (2) thirty years later when her past catches up to her. Recounted in heartbreaking detail, it chronicles the horrors that Hana experienced in the past and relives in the present. Throughout it all, Hana maintains a strong will to survive and to live her life free from conflict.

The Quiet Librarian is very different from Allen Eskens' past crime thrillers that take place in Central Missouri and/or Hennepin County, Minnesota. He writes equally masterfully, whether in this historical fiction or in his crime thrillers. I always look forward to reading his novels.

Allen Eskens is one of my favorite authors; however, I have been most critical with his choices of protagonists in what you can call his ‘series’ books.

I was very intrigued with this book and glad to see it was a standalone. Loved the title and the cover! I watched an interview before reading it so I knew the plot going in. The interview was very interesting to understand his unique writing process.

This book was excellent with alternating chapters of past and present. Strong characters that you really feel like you are part of the scene. He is a great writer making it so easy for the reader to turn the pages.

His first book, The Life We Bury, had been my favorite but I now rank this one as my top read from him as this was an excellent thriller.

Some of the violence content could be considered a little disturbing for some who are sensitive to it.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity in exchange for an honest review.

Eskers does it again!!!
Dual timelines can often make or break a book for me. This one was a make FOR SURE! Love it! Eskers remains a must read author for me!

Fantastic!

Hana wears a long sleeve cardigan sweater and works her day away, quietly, in the library. Hard working and head down, meek Hana is not what she seems - and one day a man walks into the library with news that will force Hana's other side out into the light once again.

I had to sit with this book for a couple of weeks before I could write about it. Beautifully heartbreaking and raw, this is Hana's story: Her experience growing up in Bosnia as the war takes hold, and her life in Minnesota after. That is how she sees her life in the Before and the After.

In my opinion, this is Eskens at this best.

TW: Some animal death

Thank you, NetGalley and Mulholland Books for the ARC and a chance to review this book.

Hana Babic is a nondescript, middle aged librarian with a peculiar accent. She has become a much different person from the teenaged Bosnian rebel, Nura Divjak, who watched her family murdered by the Serbians. She escaped to Minnesota with her best friend Amina. When kindly detective David Claypool informs her that Amina has been murdered, Hana realizes she is in grave danger. She must rely on the survival tactics she learned as a Bosnian insurgent to save Amina’s grandson, as well as herself. As secrets of her past are revealed, we marvel at her primal will to survive, and to protect the ones she loves.

This is a fast paced novel with characters the reader truly cares about. It is a story of genocide, death, and most importantly, redemption.

📖 ARC Review

PUB Date : Feb 17th 2025

My Rating : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Gut Wrenching Stars

Listen up books pals , I’ve read close to 120 books or more this year , I may have forgot to track a few 😂 but all kidding aside this was the easiest 5 star rating I have given ALL YEAR 👏👏👏

The Quiet Librarian should be on every one’s TBR if you like :

📚 Historical Fiction
📚 Dual Timelines
📚 Smart FMC
📚 Brilliant Writing
📚 Compelling Reads

It’s books like these that ignite my reading passion! The Quiet Librarian is Gut Wrenching, Compelling, Mysterious and filled with bravery 🖤

“ War has a way of finding everyone.”

“Sometimes I think that hatred is all I have left .” “That is because you have chosen to live in your memories.”

Our FMC takes us back to 1995 and were transformed to war in the mountains of Bosnia . We witness things no human being should ever have to bare , but our narrator is full of braveness, resilience and selfless courage and I was so enamoured by Hana .

Do not wait on this and add this to your TBR ASAP I promise you will not be disappointed!

Thank you NetGalley , Mulholland Books & Allen Eskens for this brilliant touching ARC🫶🏼

Allen Eskens is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. His latest book, The Quiet Librarian did not disappoint!

I have read every book that Allen Eskens has written, but The Quiet Librarian is above and beyond any past books he has written. And believe me, all his past books have been excellent. The time lines in this story switch from “Bosnia” to “Minnesota After Everything”. But don’t worry, you will never lose the momentum of the story, it will only enrich your experience.


During this epic read all different emotions will grab you and not let you go. We experience friendships, betrayals, death, heroism, love, heartbreak, fortitude, revenge and last but not least EXCITEMENT! At times, I literally could not catch my breath. Things are never what they seem,, not by a long shot.
The ending blew me away, and I Loved It!

Mark your calendar for February 18, 2025 and grab this book as soon as it’s published. I would give this novel 10 stars if I could, it’s that great. Congratulations Mr. Eskens on what is sure to be an instant best seller.

Thank You Net Galley, The Author Allen Eskens and to the Publisher, Mulholland Books, for giving me the privilege of reading this novel in advance for my honest opinion.

Allen Eskens is one of my favorite suspense thriller authors. He writes intellectual, thought provoking characters who are sometimes flawed but have enormous amounts of humanity. I have read every thing that he has published and consider him a must read author. If you are brand new to his work, go back and start with his very first novel and many of his follow up books have interconnected characters which makes it so fun to read. You feel like you already have some of their backstory and it makes them keenly familiar and yet intriguing. This story, The Quiet Librarian is a stand alone from the previously mentioned books but it's equally as moving and excellent.

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.

The Serbian conflict in Bosnia that happened in the mid 1990's was not really something I remember paying much attention to. I was in my early 20's raising a family and I can honestly say that issues in other countries were not on my radar. Reading about the genocide that happened to the Muslims living there was just powerfully painful. Our main character starts off as Nura and evolves to a woman who must fight to avenge her family's massacre. This story is deeply moving and also heartbreaking. I can confidently say that Allen Eskens is one of my favorite authors.

The Bosnian War like all wars brings out the good and evil in people . This book is no exception with the killing of so many innocent and the cost of suffering to those who must deal with the trauma of war. Librarian Hana is not who she appears to be and when her close friend meets a suspicious death her past comes back to be dealt with again . This book connects the present with the past and forces the main character to finally have some closure to a terrible past.

Like many other people who consume the news, I knew about the war in Bosnia, but as I discovered while reading The Quiet Librarian, I really did not know about the war in Bosnia. Allen Eskens is a new author for me, although in researching his previous novels, I discovered that he has published several notable books. In The Quiet Librarian, Eskens explains to readers that this novel grew from conversations with Bosnian refugees he had met. The resulting novel, a story of war and terror, is more than historical fiction. It is real.

The Quiet Librarian consists of two timelines and two locations. Eskens creates balance between the timelines and locations, alternating them in carefully constructed chapters. The protagonist Hana, is really Nura, a Bosnian refugee, who survived the war. There is the horror of war, the senselessness of violence, the easy murder of children, survivors guilt, escape.. All of these terms cannot begin to capture the reality of conflict, although Eskens tries to do so. There are places where the text is quite graphic. Readers are transported to burning homes, destroyed villages, mountain tops, gun battles, and even jails. I n the midst of war, there is even love.

Trigger warnings for The Quiet Librarian are not unreasonable. Bosnia is not the only war on the horizon, and those survivors are not alone in having survived. There will be other readers, who have survived this senseless horror. But the strengths of this novel are the moral questions it raises. Is killing ever justified? Are some people so evil the only way to save the world is to kill them? Eskens asks us these questions and provides an answer, of sort. Readers might find a different response.

Thank you to Eskens, Mulholland Books, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of The Quiet Librarian to read and review. This review reflects my honest opinion. I do recommend this novel. For some people it may be too graphic, but perhaps it is also necessary. Eskens does makes a case for how important it is for the US to contuse offering asylum to refugee survivors of war. The Quiet Librarian is not a long novel, but it is an important one.

Allen Eskins never disappoints and his new historical
Fiction book has me on the edge of my seat! A duel timeline reveals Hana’s past during the war to her current day persona of “The Quiet Librarian” now.

I don’t want to give too much away because it’s best you gasp in surprise and satisfaction like I did! The Quiet Librarian (Hana) however is a force to be reckoned with and we see this all unfold in this tale of bravery and courage. At what lengths will you go to avenge the wrongs of the past?

I have been reading novels by Allen Eskens for several years. While they are described as thrillers, they are usually a lot more than that. Most of his books are literary fiction with a tad of murder or thriller leading the narrative. That's not surprising because Mr. Eskens spent 25 years as a criminal attorney and then went off to earn his MFA at the University of Iowa, one of the most prestigious, if not THE most prestigious, MFA program in our nation.

In The Quiet Librarian, we meet Nura Dyak, a quiet and mousy librarian who does her best to go unnoticed. She stays in the back of the library, wearing the same sweater and blouse almost daily. Her world changes, however, when the police come to notify her that her best frient, Amina Junuzovic, is dead. She fell from her apartment building - or was she pushed? Amina was Nura's only friend and leaves behind a child, a young boy, that she wants Hana to raise.

We soon find out that Hana is more that we see on the surface, She has been a Bosnian warrier, still wanted for her "crimes". Even Hana's name was different in Bosnia where she went by Nura Divjak. Nura watched her entire family be killed in front of her while she was in hiding. The Serbs then burnt her family's home to the ground. Nura is bent on seeking revenge.

The novel weaves back and forth between the present in Minnesota and the early 1990's in Bosnia where the Bosnians were fighting the Serbs partly due to the break-up of Yugoslavia and other intervening issues. The Serbs were responsible for many unimaginable war crimes - over 100,000 people were killed, 2.2 million people were displaced; 12,000-15,000 women were raped, mostly by Serbs raping Bosnian women. This was, between 1992-1995 the most violent conflict in Europe since WWII.

As Hana/Nura tries to find out how her Amina died, and what to do about her friend's son, she finds herself drawn back into her earlier nightmares. While she wants to help the detectives, she is frightened, as she is still wanted as a criminal in Bosnia.

This is a book with complex themes and an important moral center. The author wrote this book based on information he gathered from his Bosnian neighbors in Minneapolis. The narrative is compelling and informative while also being extremely readable. I highly recommend this book.

I thank NetGalley and Mulholland Boods for this Advanced Review Copy to read and review.

A big thank you to Netgalley the publisher and Allen Eskens for an advanced copy of this book. Since his first novel The Live We Bury I have put Allen Eskens on the automatic buy list. Everything I have read has been amazing and all ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ reads. I went into this book knowing nothing about it and was glad I did. Amazing story, characters, and settings. Do yourself a favor and read anything by Allen Eskens and be sure to pre-order this or grab a copy when it comes out in February. Hopefully one day I will be able to get a signed copy of something from this author. I think this may be the best one of his I have read so far.

I received this ARC from NetGalley and it lives up to every other Eskens book I've read! He's an amazing author that ties dual timelines together so well, never getting lost in the back and forth. This story is about a young Bosnian girl who witnesses a horrific tragedy and fights to survive. I loved every minute of this read and highly recommend.

As a Serb woman born in Bosnia and immigrated to the states at 14 years old, this was a very difficult read. Even though I lived in the Serb part of Bosnia, I’m very aware of the horrors that happened to Bosniaks at the hands of my people. I’m at a loss for words, what can I possibly say?!
The writing is amazing, the reality of war mixed with imagination is brilliantly done. Heavy but fantastic read. Will definitely read more from this author.

This is a pretty good book, but it was too war focused which was boring and dull. I think the storyline was pretty good, the characters were good, and the pacing was a little slow. I think the premise was interesting

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

Allen Eskers delivers another moving mystery of rich characters. A librarian looks to solve her best friend's murder which means facing her own past and actions.

I love a great historical fiction novel about a strong woman who overcomes such devastating tragedies! Read this novel