The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna

 

Duro lives in a small village in Croatia.  He was born and grew up there where everyone knows everyone else.  He lives alone with his two dogs and spends most of his time by himself.  When an English family buys the house nearest him, he goes over and offers his skills to help them renovate the house which has stood empty for many years.  Laura is the mother, there without her husband who has stayed behind in London to work while she brings the teenage children, Grace and Matthew, to Croatia to vacation in the house he bought almost sight unseen.

As Duro helps the family by fixing the roof, clearing the land, trimming trees, and other tasks, the house starts to come back to life.  Duro knew the family there before.  His first love lived there with her husband who became Duro's best friend.  But the couple was there no more and now another family has come to stay.  

There is something below the surface in the village.  Duro goes there and sits in the bar, reminding others he is still there.  There are hints that the village contains a secret, something hidden and disturbing.  It is clear that Duro is part of the secret but the new family doesn't pick up on the tensions the villagers exist in.  Soon the tension in the village starts to spill over to the family and their fairy tale existence starts to crumble.  Will they discover what has gone on?

This is a haunting tale of what happens to the survivors of war afterwards.  Can families on opposite sides of a conflict pick back up after atrocities have been committed?  Duro holds the secrets and stays to remind those who committed the acts during the war what was done.  The secrets are teased throughout the novel and slowly revealed.  This thought provoking novel has characters who will be remembered long after the novel is finished.  Literary fiction readers will find this book especially well done.