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The Quiet Librarian: A Novel

After the murder of her best friend, a librarian's search for answers leads back to her own dark secrets in this "searing and timely" novel about a woman transformed by war, family, vengeance, and love, from the author of the beloved bestseller The Life We Bury (Kristin Harmel, author of The Paris Daughter).

"Fans of Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale or Kate Quinn's books will be caught up in this story of a courageous woman."―Library Journal (starred review)

"Exquisitely written, profoundly affecting, and undoubtedly one of the best books I will read this year."―Louise Fein, author of The London Bookshop Affair

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.

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Published Feb 18, 2025

320 pages

Average rating: 8.27

26 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

literarily_occupied
Aug 12, 2025
10/10 stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5 stars

I tend to be hesitant and quite picky when it comes to reading historical fiction because I feel like after reading so many they all begin to feel and read much the same.

The Quiet Librarian for me was wholly unique and I found it to be riveting. The story alternates between the present and the Bosnian War in 1995.

This is a must have for library shelves and I highly recommend if you can push through some of the more graphic (yet necessary to the story) scenes. My thoughts and feelings as I was reading one particular scene that takes place early on: Brutal, graphic, heart wrenching (actual physical pain).

Don't judge a book by its cover, or underestimate what people are capable of. A librarian isn't always just a librarian.

“Men have the capacity for good as much as they have the capacity for cruelty. What is right and what is wrong is written on our hearts. But when there is war, men follow what they choose to follow and rationalize the evil they do."

Many thanks to Edelweiss and Hachette Book Group for this digital Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

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