Red Water by Jurica Pavicic translated by Matt Robinson

I would like to thank Bitter Lemon Press and Random Things Tours for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher - Bitter Lemon Press

Published - Out Now

Price - £8.99 paperback £7.99 ebook

1989 The Dalmatian Coast. The investigation into a young woman's disappearance falters as Yugoslavia plunges into civil war. Another three decades will pass before the truth is revealed. In a fishing village on the coast of Croatia, Silva, a 17-year-old girl, disappears one night. She is beautiful and cheeky, admired by many; but the police investigation led by Inspector Gorki Sain reveals a more complex portrait of Silva than her family believed. She dabbled in drugs and resold heroin. The police investigation is brought to a halt as Tito's Yugoslavia descends into civil war. Only the family of the young woman stubbornly continues the search, amid the upheavals of Croatian society, from the fall of communism, through the 1991-1995 civil war, to the explosion of tourism with its toxic land speculation and corruption. Much happens as if we were witnessing vengeful providence at work in an ancient tragedy, in this case, set off by a sordid crime.

Tales of crime are often about resolution. We like to see the murderer found, the guilty punished and a neat explanation of all the clues previously laid out. As well as a tidy plot it also helps us think the world is ordered, balanced and just. But not all problems have a resolution and that leaves marks that long carry on in our lives, forever shaping our choices and leaving its stains upon us. In Jurica Pavicic’s haunting but powerful novel Red Water (beautifully translated by Matt Robinson) we follow a nearly thirty year period through a family’s personal crisis and a small town that sees itself reshaped by both it and the huge changes the country itself goes through.

In 1989 in the small town of Misto in Yugoslavia while there are signs of trouble in Eastern Europe they seem a little far away for this community. Indeed for long married Jajov, his wife Vesna and their twin children Mate and Silva on the cusp of turning eighteen, it’s just a standard summer. No major issues and fairly ordinary lives but when Silva goes out to see friends in town and does not come home the next day, or the day after. The police are called, locals known to Silva are suspected and yet no crime is found. The case gets colder and colder. Over the coming years to come Misto will face civil war and become part of Croatia and see the growing impact of commercialisation but for the residents close to Silva their lives will be changed forever hoping for answers that may never come.

This was a beautiful read and is far more about the aftermaths of events rather than a neat tidy crime novel. Pavicic smartly mixes the changes within Croatia over the period to the more personal impact of Silva’s disappearance on people’s lives. If we think about all the big historical events we have lived through do those always come back to mind over our lives or is our own personal dramas that not dominate us?

In many ways this is a slow tragedy unfolding over decades and each chapter focuses on key characters and jumps from 1989 and where they were up to Silva’s disappearance and then the aftermath itself causes. Silva’s family in particular but also her boyfriend and the local boy last seen with her and the detective originally assigned to the case. We get to see the heartbreaking break up of Silva’s parents who cannot reconcile over how they think Silva has disappeared and in particular for Mate a young man who should have been an engineering student gives it up for. Harder life so that he can travel across Europe in the hope of finding his sister. How long can anyone ever go on looking for answers and what kind of impact does that have on peoples’ own relationships. We get the highs and hard lows of this search and see the toll each has on the family. The character work here is beautifully delivered and Silva while only visible for a few chapters casts a long shadow as we uncover aspects of her life hidden to her family that raised even more questions.

Moving outwards from the family drama we see also the changes to Misto. There is almost a hint of a town cursed by Silva’s disappearance as it soon faces into the violent war that forms the new Balkan countries, the way people’s careers change if as our Inspector finds having a good communist family pedigree is no longer valued post fall of the old regime and then the increasing power of commercial interests seeing land that has belonged to families for generations now offering prime retail development for the right price. The scarring of these events on the characters some particularly brutal and tragic is like watching young lives being slowly covered in the pain of adulthood and suspicion. There was one plotline of a drug dealer turned military hero and politician that I felt seemed truncated that slightly didn’t work but otherwise what we see is really well told.

There is ultimately some answers but in fitting with the tone of this tale not easy ones and it still leaves an impact. The bigger question is can anyone escape this shadow and the book’s key character is Mate the brother who is haunted by his sister’s disappearance, his parent’s disintegrating marriage and what that caused his own life. There is some light in this tale but it’s hard won.

Red Water is a powerful story with a compelling mystery but also a fascinating look at the history that while recent inspect few of us in the U.K. know much about. The mix of elegant character work and human drama give this tale lots of emotional depth and power that lingers in the mind. I highly recommend this.