Friday Reads – The Dubrovnik Book Club by Eva Glyn

It’s time for another Friday Reads blog and this week I’m featuring the cosy crime novel, The Dubrovnik Book Club by Eva Glyn. So grab yourself a cuppa, get comfy and let’s get chatting to Eva. 😊

BLURB

In a tiny bookshop in Dubrovnik’s historic Old Town, a book club begins…

Newly arrived on the sun-drenched shores of Croatia, Claire Thomson’s life is about to change forever when she starts working at a local bookshop. With her cousin Vedran, employee Luna and Karmela, a professor, they form an unlikely book club.

But when their first book club pick – an engrossing cosy crime – inspires them to embark upon an investigation that is close to the group’s heart, they quickly learn the value of keeping their new-found friends close as lives and stories begin to entwine…

You can get a copy here: Amazon

Welcome to my blog, Eva. Your book sounds intriguing. How did you go about writing it?

I am rubbish at titles. Really rubbish. So much so that I generally leave it to my publisher to think of one which will actually work. But The Dubrovnik Book Club just popped into my head and I mentioned it to her over lunch. She absolutely adored it – and as I have always wanted to write a book about unlikely friendships, it seemed the way to go.

I had one character already. In my previous book set in Dubrovnik, The Collaborator’s Daughter, there was a minor character, a student called Vedran. Now, twelve years later he’s a successful lawyer but his personal life is in a terrible mess following the unexplained disappearance of his girlfriend.

I like my books to feature British and Croatian characters and I knew that Vedran had a cousin by marriage from London called Claire. Claire suffered so badly from Long Covid she’s terrified of catching the virus again. However her grandmother isn’t going to let her spend her life languishing in a bedroom and recommended her for the job as temporary manager of the bookshop. Running a book club in its close confines is her idea of hell, but she agrees to it as she’s desperate not to let anyone down.

During my visits to Croatia I discovered that gay life in most of the country is largely still hidden. Only the capital, Zagreb, has a regular Pride event, and Dubrovnik’s first gay bar didn’t open until the summer of 2022. My normal research sources drew blanks. Being gay may be legal, but it’s a long way from being accepted and I wanted to highlight this. Enter Luna, a young girl from a small island, desperate to come out.

The fourth character, Karmela, hid from me for a very long time. Initially she was my husband’s suggestion when he floated the idea of me using my own experiences and making her a writer, struggling with a book. I took it further – she would be history professor who thinks it will be easy to write an historical romance, but putting the emotion into it is proving impossible. It also proved impossible for me to get her character to work; until I removed the book idea completely and her backstory in the Balkan war of the 1990s began to creep through.

Many readers also say that Dubrovnik itself is a character in this novels, as they can see, hear and feel the medieval old town wrap them into its spell. I do hope they’re right, because it’s one of my favourite places in the world, wearing both its past and its present with equal ease:

The market traders that gathered daily in Gunduliceva Poljana at the end of the road were long gone, and a plastic bag blew forlornly around the poet’s statue, so often surrounded by people and stalls, but now glorious in his isolation. Around the corner there was still a bustle on the terrace outside Gradska Kavana, customers wrapped in coats and colourful scarves under the heaters, laughing and talking, and Vedran wished he had the guts to take Claire there. But he hadn’t. And that was that.

In truth, the old town was the easiest character to write, but I really hope that if you choose to read The Dubrovnik Book Club you enjoy them all.

Meet Eva

EVA GLYN BIOGRAPHY

Eva Glyn writes escapist relationship-driven fiction with a kernel of truth at its heart. She loves to travel and finds inspiration in beautiful places and the stories they hide.

Her love affair with Croatia began in 2019, and since then the country’s haunting histories and gorgeous scenery have proved fertile ground for her books, driven by her friendship with a tour guide she met there. His wartime story provided the inspiration for The Olive Grove and his help in creating a realistic portrayal of Croatian life has proved invaluable. Her second novel set in the country, An Island of Secrets is a dual timeline looking back to World War 2, and although her third is a contemporary romance featuring mature main characters, The Collaborator’s Daughter, has its roots in that conflict too.

Inspired by authors she loves such as Libby Page and Faith Hogan, Eva has wanted to write books about unlikely friendships for a long time. March 2024 saw her dream realised, when The Dubrovnik Book Club was published.

Eva lives in Cornwall, although she considers herself Welsh, and is lucky enough to be married to the love of her life, who she’s been with for almost thirty years. She also writes as Jane Cable.

Follow Eva on Instagram: @evaglynauthor
On Twitter: @JaneCable
On Bookbub: @EvaGlyn
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EvaGlynAuthor/

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