I got this books from Netgalley in return for an honest review. I was disappointed. It took forever for me to read it and today I just decided to plow through it because there were some interesting parts and towards the end, I just started skimming for those parts. It was hard to get into the story because it was so unbelievable that I couldn't suspend belief to make it work. A young American coming to Bulgaria to teach English accidently gets a bag with an urn full of ashes, and she decides to find the owner on day one in a new country. No. Then she willingly jumps in a cab with a guy that knows things that most taxi drivers wouldn't know and continues to be with him for days trying to find this family. No.

There were some beautiful passages and descriptions, but I couldn't believe the main story. The secondary story which was flashbacks of the deceased's urn she is trying to return was interesting but only started in the middle of the novel. Usually Kostova novels I finish within a few days, but this book will and 21 days.