The Quiet Librarian, Allen Eskens
The Quiet Librarian, Allen Eskens
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The Quiet Librarian
A Novel

Author: Allen Eskens

Narrator: Ilvana Muratovic

Unabridged: 8 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/18/2025


Synopsis

After the murder of her best friend, a librarian’s search for answers leads back to her own dark secrets in this sweeping novel about a woman transformed by war, family, vengeance, and love, from award-winning writer Allen Eskens.

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.
 
Now, someone is hunting Hana, and her friend has paid the price, leaving her eight-year-old grandson in Hana’s care. To protect the child without revealing her secret, Hana must again become the Night Mora—and hope she can find the killer before the past comes for them, too.
 

About Allen Eskens

Allen Eskens is the award-winning and USA Today bestselling author of The Life We Bury, The Guise of Another, and The Heavens May Fall. A criminal-defense attorney for twenty-five years, he lives with his wife in Minnesota, where he is a member of the Twin Cities Sisters in Crime.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Mary Beth on March 24, 2025

Five ๐Ÿ’ƒ๐Ÿ’ƒ๐Ÿ’ƒ๐Ÿ’ƒ๐Ÿ’ƒHappy Dance Stars!! 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......more

Goodreads review by Nikki on February 17, 2025

Another miraculous story by the best crime writer of our times! Allen Eskens is an author who brings out all the โ€œfeelsโ€! Once again he has woven a narrative so powerful that this story will stay with me for a very long time! Utterly terrifying and brilliantly executed. Hana is a single, forty-seven......more

Goodreads review by Debra on March 20, 2025

Another brilliant book by Allen Eskens! I swear, he could write the phone book (do they still make them?) and I would read it! The Quiet Librarian is gripping, mysterious, powerful, beautifully written, well thought out, and hard to put down. I tend to be a very fast reader, but I forced myself to s......more

Goodreads review by Norma ~ The Sisters on April 06, 2025

The Quiet Librarian: A Tale of Two Reactions The Sisters are at it again, rambling about our very different reactions to The Quiet Librarian and boy did we feel differently. For me, this was one of those books where mood reading came into play hard. I wasnโ€™t quite in the mood for the heavy trauma and......more

Goodreads review by JanB on April 03, 2025

My review is a bit of a mixed bag. 3.5 stars I appreciate reading a book that highlighted the history of the Bosnian-Serbian War. The atrocities were horrific and difficult to read. This happened in our recent lifetime, and we should never ever forget. I won't go into the plot, and the details of the......more


Quotes

"A searing and timely story of regret, retribution, and reinvention, set against a powerfully drawn backdrop of war and suffused with the reminder that we always have within us the power to light the way to a better tomorrow."โ€”Kristin Harmel, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Daughter

“This book will stay with me for a long, long time. From the very first lines, I knew I was in the hands of a master storyteller. Eskens effortlessly interweaves a compelling mystery in modern day Minnesota with a devastating account of one young girl’s experience of war thirty years prior. The novel unflinchingly urges its readers to consider the morally grey concept of retribution in light of the most terrible crimes. In stunning prose, it shows all too clearly the way war has the ability to make monsters of ordinary people and how neither side, victor or not, will be free of its poison for decades to come. Lamentably, this is all too relevant in today’s world. The Quiet Librarian is exquisitely written, profoundly affecting, and is undoubtedly one of the best books I will read this year.”โ€”Louise Fein, author of The London Bookshop Affair

"In The Quiet Librarian, Allen Eskens brings readers a suspenseful, heartrending story of friendship, strength and endurance, set against a history too rarely explored in fiction. This is a truly breathtaking read from a masterful storyteller and one I cannot recommend highly enough."โ€”Kelly Rimmer, New York Times bestselling author of The Things We Cannot Say

"The Quiet Librarian is a devastating and engrossing novel, a breathtaking thriller that gets to the complex heart of grief, regret, and re-invention. Hana Babic is an absolutely unforgettable main character."โ€”Lou Berney, USA Today bestselling author of DARK RIDE

“Rich in detail and perfectly paced, Allen Esken’s The Quiet Librarian immerses readers in an often forgotten war, but also takes us on an emotional journey with a gutsy protagonist who is suddenly forced to step out of the shadows to settle an old score when her past unexpectedly comes calling. Mystery, history, and a kick-ass female lead—what’s not to love!?”โ€”Barbara Davis, bestselling author of The Echo of Old Books

“This book has it all—a fast-paced, spellbinding mystery, a terrifying war tale, a truly fascinating, heroic protagonist that confronts her past trauma and sets it right. Just terrific.”โ€”Christina Kovac, Author of The Cutaway

"A searing novel of one woman's ferocious courage during a bloody conflict the world has tried to forget; a story of enduring friendship between two women, sacrifice and secrets held for decades, and one final, desperate act to save an innocent child."
 โ€”Kathleen Kent, author of BLACK WOLF

Praise for Saving Emma

“Ambitious, absorbing, and deeply satisfying.”โ€”Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Superb . . . Eskens delivers carefully calibrated dual plots that give equal attention to both the legal aspects and the domestic storyline. Another Eskens novel to be savored.”โ€”South Florida Sun-Sentinel