The Quiet Librarian

The Quiet Librarian (2025) is a historical thriller by American author Allen Eskens. It combines a suspenseful plot with an exploration of the lasting impact of the Bosnian War on its protagonist, small-town librarian Hana Babić. Through dual timelines, the novel follows her wartime struggles as well as her later life in rural Minnesota, where a suspicious death draws her back into the unfinished violence of her past.

Eskens is a best-selling and award-winning writer. His novel The Life We Bury (2014) was a finalist for the Edgar Award, and he is a recipient of the Minnesota Book Award and the Left Coast Crime Award. A former criminal defense attorney, Eskens is known for psychologically complex, character-driven crime fiction that engages with themes related to justice, the blurry line separating innocence and guilt, and the intricacies of the legal system. Many of his novels, like The Quiet Librarian, are set in his home state of Minnesota. This is Eskens’s first foray into historical fiction and is the product of extensive research into the breakup of Yugoslavia and its violent aftermath.

This guide refers to the 2025 hardcover edition published by Mulholland Books.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of graphic violence, death, child death, death by suicide, sexual violence and harassment, rape, child sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, bullying, pregnancy termination, mental illness, racism, religious discrimination, and substance use.

Language Note: The author mostly uses “Bosnian Muslim” to describe Hana/Nura’s ethno-religious community and identity, although he sometimes uses the term “Bosniak.” Bosniak is the preferred identification for individuals of both Bosnian and Muslim descent and was formally adopted by the community in the 1990s. It is a more respectful and accurate designator than “Bosnian Muslim,” and this is the term that the guide uses to describe Muslims of Bosnian descent.

Plot Summary

Small-town librarian Hana Babić receives a visit at work from Detective David Claypool. He tells her that her friend Amina Junuzović has just died under suspicious circumstances: She either fell or was pushed from her balcony during a break-in.

In a series of flashbacks, the novel describes Hana’s childhood in Bosnia. She is named Nura Divjak, which is the name she uses until immigrating to the United States. She grows up in a rural farming community. Though her family is Bosniak, most of the area’s population is ethnically Serbian Orthodox. However, these ethnic and religious identity categories mean little to Nura’s friends, family, and neighbors: Nura’s best friends are Serbian Orthodox, and her family lives at peace with their neighbors.

This changes when civil war breaks out in Yugoslavia. Overnight, hatred springs up between Bosnian and Serb communities. Nura’s friends suddenly reject her, and she is forced to stop attending school. When a group of angry Serbian soldiers arrives at Nura’s family home, she is surprised to recognize that her friend’s father and another friend’s brother are among their group. Terrified, Nura hides. She watches, stunned, as the men murder her parents and brother. The soldiers then set fire to her home. Nura is burned, but she survives and vows to avenge her family’s deaths.

She then embarks on this mission by finding and killing the soldier who murdered her father. She is forced to flee into the woods right after, and she meets a rag-tag group of Bosnian soldiers. She would like nothing more than to hunt down the other Serbian soldiers responsible for her family’s deaths, but her companions explain that acting on her own would be too dangerous. She then decides to join their paramilitary unit and fight for the Bosniaks. She trains with them in combat and learns to drive. She becomes a truck driver and is responsible for ferrying their unit to Srebrenica, which is a town besieged by Serb forces. As they approach it, Serb soldiers attack their convoy. Many members of Nura’s unit are injured or killed. The survivors move to a new camp, and Nura learns that in Srebrenica, Serbian soldiers rounded up thousands of Bosniak men and boys, killed them, and buried them in mass graves. After this, she becomes even more determined to fight for her people.

Nura accompanies one of her fellow soldiers on a dangerous reconnaissance mission, and she is captured. In a prison cell in the Serbian barracks, she meets Amina, a 15-year-old girl who has been held captive and raped multiple times. She also sees the other two men who killed her family: Her friend’s brother Luka and a man identified as Colonel Zorić. Although both Zorić and Luka intend to torture and kill her, Nura engineers an escape for herself and Amina. She stabs Zorić, killing him, and she shoots Luka and leaves him for dead. When she and Amina make it to safety and reunite with the Bosnian army, Nura learns that she is now wanted for war crimes since the Serbs have falsely accused her of killing two Bosniak women. Her Bosniak friend informs her that she must flee the country for her own safety and that passage has been arranged under a false passport: She will now become Hana Babić and head to the United States. Amina accompanies her; she is pregnant by her rapist and is determined to keep the child.

In the present day, Hana contemplates her friendship with Amina. Amina had her child, a girl named Sara, not long after she and Hana left Bosnia and settled in Minnesota. Sara and her husband both died tragically not long after their own son, Dylan, was born. Amina has named Hana as Dylan’s guardian, and she decides to adopt him.

Hana meets with Detective Claypool. She does not want to disclose details about her own past, though she wants to investigate Amina’s death, too, and wants all the information that Claypool has. Under the guise of gathering Dylan’s belongings, she convinces Claypool to grant her access to Amina’s apartment. There, she finds a receipt for an auto repair. Amina had a boyfriend, Zaim, who was also Bosnian, and Hana is sure that he is involved in her death. She visits the auto shop listed on the receipt, learns Zaim’s address from the mechanic, and visits his apartment. However, a neighbor tells her that he hasn’t been home for days.

Hana meets with Claypool again, hoping to learn more about Amina’s death. She is distressed to find out that Claypool is attempting to gain access to Amina’s therapy notes: Amina had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and sought out therapeutic help, and Hana knows that those notes will contain damning information about Hana herself. They might even help Claypool identify her as the criminal who is wanted for war crimes in Serbia. Despite this, Hana finds herself attracted to Claypool and flirts with him. However, when Claypool accuses Hana of withholding information about the investigation, she grudgingly apologizes and agrees to help him locate Zaim.

In the meantime, Hana brings Dylan home and makes funeral arrangements for Amina. She learns that Zaim has a secluded property and guesses that he is hiding there. She visits it under the cover of night and finds that Zaim has been killed. She also uncovers a trove of therapy files in his trailer: They have all been stolen from Amina’s therapist, but Amina’s file is missing. Amina wonders if Zaim was blackmailing the therapist’s other patients. She considers telling Claypool about Zaim, but she decides to anonymously report his death to 911 instead.

Claypool knows from a shoe print that Hana was present at the crime scene on Zaim’s property, and he berates her for once again tampering with his investigation. He accuses her of stealing Amina’s file and reveals that Zaim had ties to a diplomatic organization. Hana does some online sleuthing and finds a picture of Luka, who is listed as a diplomat from Serbia. Hana is horrified, realizing that she did not, in fact, kill him when she shot him. She is also struck by his resemblance to Dylan: While Hana always assumed that Zorić was Amina’s rapist, she now realizes that it was actually Luka. She wonders if Luka is in the United States to destroy his association to his past war crimes by killing Amina and Dylan. She speculates that Zaim was blackmailing Luka: He must have learned the identity of Amina’s rapist and contacted Luka to demand hush money. Again, she considers sharing this information with Claypool, but she decides to continue her own investigation without his help. She knows that Luka will have diplomatic immunity in the United States and is unlikely to see prosecution even if he is charged with crimes.

Hana purchases a shotgun and lays a trap for Luka in her barn. She constructs a snare that will capture him by the leg and hang him from the barn’s ceiling. At Amina’s funeral, she spots Luka on the edge of the cemetery, and she goes home to wait for him. He arrives at night, and she catches him in her trap. Luka initially feigns innocence, explaining that he is just an ordinary person whose car broke down nearby, but Hana identifies herself and informs him that she intends to kill him. Just then, Claypool arrives. He tells Hana that he got ahold of Amina’s therapy file, and he now knows Hana’s true identity. He also explains that she cannot kill Luka without going to prison. Hana decides to kill Luka anyway, and she shoots him with his own small handgun.

Several months later, Claypool meets with both Bosnian and Serbian diplomats. Luka’s body has washed up in the Mississippi River, and the Serbian delegation is upset to learn that his death has been ruled a suicide. Claypool and the Bosnian diplomat reveal that Luka was in possession of an illegal firearm and likely killed Zaim. They share that it is in the best interest of the Serbian delegation to agree to close the case rather than drawing the press’s attention. They reluctantly agree to do so.

The novel ends with Hana and Claypool sitting in her yard, watching Dylan play. Claypool admits that he helped Hana cover up Luka’s murder because it was the only way to get justice. After years as a law-enforcement officer, Claypool is well aware that the justice system does not always work in favor of victims and survivors. Both Hana and Claypool feel at peace.