Laura is haunted by the life she left behind in Bosnia. Now, she doesn’t know who she can trust.

Laura, a young refugee and librarian, meets Adam at Cambridge University and falls in love. But when Adam’s diplomatic work takes them to Serbia in pursuit of war criminal General Ratko Mladić, Laura finds herself retraumatised in the very country that invaded her own.

Isolated and lonely, she is visited by the ghosts of those who died in the conflict, their presence as vivid as the people around her. They tell their stories, but they also cook traditional meals and share folktales of ancient water spirits, awakening in Laura a longing for home. Is she losing her mind? Or can the ghosts help her? In this timely tale of secrets and betrayal, Laura must confront her past and the turbulent history of the Balkans as she seeks to rediscover her roots.

Poised on the edge of magic realism, Dancing on Knives explores the human cost of war in Europe, and one woman’s quest to reclaim her true self.