A masterpiece!” Libération
“As inspiring as the Swedes Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. Pavičić brilliantly resorts to the noir novel to accompany ordinary lives caught in the collapse of communism, the rise of nationalism and the shock of wars.” Le Monde
“The city of Split is more than a setting, almost a character. A tourist mirage in the summer, the Croatian port is confronted, out of season, with the aftermath of war, deindustrialisation, and all kinds of depravity. Beyond the family drama and the police investigation, the metamorphosis of Croatia interests Pavičić.” Telerama
“One evening in the winter of 1991 I was having dinner in Zagreb with fellow foreign correspondent. Croatia was at war, bombarded by the Yugoslav army. The streets were crowded with soldiers and refugees. But there was no shortage of food. We asked the waiter which fish was available. "Croatian fish," he replied, his stare hard. How can a fish have a nationality, I silently wondered. Quite easily, I later realised, when your homeland and its coastline are being strafed and bombed.
Pavičić’s outstanding crime thriller Red Water (Bitter Lemon £9.99) opens in September 1989 as Yugoslavia’s communist dictatorship collapses. The rest of central and eastern Europe is preparing for freedom and democracy. Yugoslavia’s republics are preparing for war. The politics, though, are a backdrop, on which Pavičić paints a profoundly human story of loss and longing. When 17-year-old Silva disappears, her family is thrown into turmoil. Has she run away or been murdered? Either seems possible. Her father, Jakov, and twin brother, Mate, search frantically for her in vain. But Silva, it is soon revealed, is not an innocent but was dealing drugs.
Jakov eventually gives up but Mate never does, criss-crossing Europe for years. Pavičić weaves the fallout of Silva’s disappearance against the backdrop of the Balkan wars and their aftermath into a gripping, seamless narrative. It is not until 2015 that Silva’s fate is revealed in a dark, wholly unexpected twist. Yugoslavia needed Tito and communism to remain united. Silva’s family needed her to hold it together. Without her, it eventually disintegrates, breaking up, like the country, into its constituent parts. Yet the story also ends with the promise of redemption. This finely engineered, haunting novel has been deservedly garlanded with awards.” ---Financial Times
“The best crime fiction of 2025 so far — our critics’ top new books for May. In 1989 Croatia was part of Yugoslavia, but the villages of the Dalmatian coast, with their spectacular beaches, were about to be drawn into civil war. In this outstanding novel, Jurica Pavicic uses the unsolved disappearance of a teenage girl, Silva, to document the impact of the conflict. The investigation falters when communism collapses and the lead detective, whose grandfather was a hero of the old regime, loses his job. The son of the local baker is ostracised thanks to gossip about his relationship with the missing girl and it’s a relief when he’s drafted into the army. Silva’s parents grow apart as her mother insists her husband and son distribute posters and follow up possible sightings. The course of their lives is changed as much by Silva’s absence and the stories they tell themselves to account for it as it is by the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Pavicic is from Split and his novel borrows the crime genre to offer insights into his country’s history.” ----Times/Sunday Times, Joan Smith
“Another very different setting is offered by Jurica Pavičić’s excellent Red Water, a work that won a number of French prizes in 2021-2. 17-year-old Silva Vela disappears from her small Croatian hometown in 1989 after a party followed by sex. Her murder is suspected and this is skilfully traced through the complex dynamics of her hometown. Unexpectedly, her departure by bus from Split is eventually revealed which leads her twin brother, Mate, on a long search for her, one that by 2017 has thrown up many unexpected turns and shone a light on place, people and change, not least a seaside of wind and a deceptive opening from a world mentally closed but assailed by time. Ethnic tension, drugs, greed for land, and police rivalries all play a role, as does chance. The story is stretched through the transformative changes of revolution and war from 1989, with characters thrown together or apart by the changes and then seeking their way in the new-old society. Very ably written, for example, in Adrijan’s account of the ultimately explosive invasion of Bosnia in 1995, or of Gorki, a well-connected policeman turned agent for Irish land speculators, as in 2004, he comes up against the determination of the elderly to retain family plots. More memorable for its psychological insights, moral weight, and Tolstoyian quality (without the length). This is the only one of his nine novels I have read. His work deserves translation.” The Critic
“A brilliant cocktail of mystery and recent history, compellingly told".--Kirkus
"The mysterious disappearance of a young woman shadows several people in her life for decades. Pavičić’s award-winning novel, first published in Croatia in 2017, unfolds like a true-crime story, with precise attention to timelines and small details. In “Part 1: Silva Disappears,” 17-year-old Silva Vela vanishes from the village of Misto on a September morning in 1989, with the crisis presented through the viewpoints of her mother, Vesna, father, Jakov, and twin brother, Mate. The police are brought in, suspects are questioned, and Jakov hires a private detective, all to no avail. "Part 2: Diverging Paths," covering the next 20 years, expands its perspective to include several other characters, including two of the original suspects in Silva’s disappearance. Adrijan Lekaj, who was arrested, served in the tragic Bosnian War, continues to wonder about Silva, and has a strange, random encounter with fellow suspect Mario Cvitković. As family members soldier on, the sweet sadness of remembering Silva hovers. Mate marries, Vesna approaches the end of her teaching career, but “they never found her.” Gorki, the young policeman who moved away after being originally assigned to the case, returns to Misto and finds it much changed. Silva’s disappearance is a lens or metaphor for the nation’s recent dark history. In Part 3, “Silva Returns.” Exactly how is left for the reader to discover. "Part 4: Red Water” offers a final twist on the story through a new character and a poignant look back at Croatia’s last 30 years.”----Kirkus Reviews
“In this epic tale, a family’s thirty-year quest to discover the fate of their missing daughter intertwines with the saga of Yugoslavia’s violent dissolution and the following rapacious rush to fill Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast with luxury resorts. When 17-year-old Silva first vanishes in 1989, the investigation is soon stymied by the vast upheavals of the 1990s, and it will take decades of searching before we learn the final, heart-breaking answer. The novel’s strengths lie in its relentless drive, clear-eyed judgement, and focus on empathy: every action is understandable, yet none are forgivable.”---CrimeReads
“Pavičić superimpose a family drama and an outstanding, skilful historical fresco, while never, not even for a second, sacrificing the suspense of a good crime novel... Remarkable book.” Le Figaro
