The body of a drowned man has washed up on the sea near Trogir. The dead man's fingerprints do not match any database and no one has reported him missing. Police are appealing for help from the public by releasing a photo and a few brief details.
The case attracts the attention of a recently retired journalist, Goran Najev, who embarks on an investigation. The search takes him to various parts of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, uncovering deeply buried secrets related to the wartime past.
A tense crime thriller … a precisely designed structure that combines the classic whodunit framework with the rhythm of a contemporary thriller, gradually building tension not only from danger and threats, but also from the inner struggle of its main character…. ‘Mouth Full of Sea’ seems classic in its form, but also shows a new level of narrative maturity…. Pavičić’s prose is condensed and rhythmic, the narrative is led in a concentrated manner, in a series of short, cinematically framed chapters, perfectly cut at the moment that leaves the most tense dramaturgical void – in the style of the best practice of a true master, with which he clearly makes us frantically keep reading. This structure functions like an assembly line: the perfectly chiseled dynamics of acceleration and deceleration, tension and release, have a hypnotic effect – this book does not let go of your hands until the last page.
Gea Vlahović (Tportal)
"Mouth full of sea" confirms that Pavičić is an author who still knows how to illuminate the dark places of collective memory and transform them into fiction that is both exciting and painfully real.
Đorđe Bajić (Nedeljnik, Serbia)
