Thirsty: A Novel

It is 1883, and all of Klara Bozic’s girlish dreams have come crashing down as she arrives in Thirsty, a gritty steel town carved into the slopes above the Monongahela River just outside of Pittsburgh. She has made a heartbreaking discovery. Her new husband Drago is as abusive as the father she left behind in Croatia. In Kristin Bair O’Keeffe’s debut novel, Klara’s life unfolds over forty years as she struggles to find her place in a new country where her survival depends on the friends who nurture her.

Thirsty follows the unlikely events that keep Klara’s spirit aloft as the threads that hold her family together finally fray and come undone, leaving Klara to decide if she has the courage to carve out her own peaceful spot in the world.