Red Water

A woman disappears after a beach party, and the search for her reveals Croatia's complex history well beyond the fall of Communism.

Silva is beautiful and cheeky, she has many admirers; but the police investigation reveals a more complex young woman than her family knew—a  high school student who dabbles in drugs and deals in heroin. But Silva’s brother loves her and stubbornly continues the search for her amid the upheavals of Croatian society. The following years will see the fall of communism and five long years of war. It will be almost 30 years till Silva’s fate is revealed. 

"This finely engineered, haunting novel has been deservedly garlanded with awards.” ---Financial Times

“A brilliant cocktail of mystery and recent history, compellingly told."--Kirkus

“The best crime fiction of 2025 so far: In this outstanding novel, Jurica Pavicic uses the unsolved disappearance of a teenage girl, Silva, to document the impact of the Yugoslav civil war." --Times/Sunday Times