This book takes us back to Dubrovnik, the city we first visited in The Collaborator’s Daughter, author Eva Glyn’s previous masterful novel. Dubrovnik is located in Croatia and was historically known as Ragusa. It’s a tourist destination in the Mediterranean, a seaport and a World Heritage Site because of its outstanding medieval architecture and fortified old town. It’s teeming with life and history. Glyn’s vivid descriptions allow us to once again visualize this beautiful, fascinating place and some of the beautiful, fascinating people in it. The Dubrovnik Book Club picks up about a dozen years after The Collaborator’s Daughter ends, with some of the same characters featured, but it’s a standalone novel, not really a sequel or the next in a series. In fact, I have to admit that I was a way in before I even realized I already knew some of these folks because Glyn did such an outstanding job of captivating me from the very beginning of the novel with this time and this group and this set of events.
Everyone is facing something difficult or disturbing or frustrating or tragic. Vedran’s girlfriend disappeared/drowned/came to harm? When foul play was initially suspected he was questioned but then cleared. Cleared by the judicial system, but not by the townsfolk. The popular opinion is that he “got away” with murder; he’s talked about, shunned, and has been asked to work from home until things calm down. He despairs of that ever happening and has a huge fear of a secret about his life with Didi ever being exposed.
Claire is spending a few months in Dubrovnik, away from her home in London, with her grandmother Fran and Fran’s husband Jadran (the main stars of The Collaborator’s Daughter). This isn’t meant to be a vacation; Clair had Long Covid and is now afraid to venture out, to mingle with people, to return to her old life. Fran’s goal is to help her get past those fears, starting with a job at The Welcoming Bookshop.
Luna and her flatmate Ezra left the small town they grew up in and moved to Dubrovnik – Ezra to pursue career dreams, Luna to escape. Escape the disapproval and restriction and rejection. Karmela is a professor on sabbatical, temporarily in Dubrovnik doing Ragusan research, which seems to be the only thing that brings her pleasure. She’s unfriendly, judgmental, an outsider – with a shameful secret. Rafael is a self-proclaimed hero of the Creation War of Independence, full of stories that don’t always have the ring of truth, and also often full of alcohol.
A variety of people with seemingly nothing in common and no reason to interact. But they do, either as members of the book club being led by Claire or through their connection to someone who is a member. In addition to the books and the conversations and the delicious food provided by Fran, they somehow become a unit: an investigative team trying to learn what really happened to Didi and clear Vedran’s name once and for all, and then take it upon themselves to try and find a way for the bookshop to remain open when increased rent or sale of the building threaten closure. The Dubrovnik Book Club is a history lesson, a mystery and a charming story of such very different people finding common ground, common purpose, and deep friendship. It’s exciting, informative, sad, hopeful.
The first thing I did after finishing The Collaborator’s Daughter was to make a note to myself: READ MORE EVA GLYN. Thanks to Harper Collins Publishers UK, One More Chapter for providing an advance copy of The Dubrovnik Book Club via NetGalley and allowing me to do just that. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it without hesitation. I have made another note to myself to KEEP READING EVA GLYN. I voluntarily leave this review; all opinions are my own.
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Top reviews from other countries
Carol
An enjoyable, engaging read and a wonderful setting.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 11, 2024Lady Bracknell
Another captivating tale from Eva Glyn.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 9, 2024