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Thirsty
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 gutsy, funny Katherine Zupanovic, who isn‘t afraid of Drago’s fist; BenJo, the only black man in Thirsty to have his own shop; and strangely enough, Old Man Rupert, the town drunk. Thirsty follows a chain of unlikely events that keep Klara’s spirit a flock of angelic butterflies descends on Thirsty; Klara gives birth to her first child in Old Man Rupert’s pumpkin patch; and BenJo gives her a talking bird. When Klara’s daughter marries a man even more brutal than Drago, Klara is forced to act. If she doesn’t finally break the cycle of violence in her family, her granddaughters will one day walk the same road, broken and bruised. As the threads that hold her family together fray and come undone, Klara has to decide if she has the courage to carve out a peaceful spot in the world for herself and her girls.
215 pages, Hardcover
First published September 29, 2009
4 people are currently reading
134 people want to read
About the author
Kristin Bair O'Keeffe
4 books215 followersKristin Bair writes fiercely—and humorously—about women navigating (peri)menopause, marriage, motherhood, the mental load, and identity. Her fourth novel, Clementine Crane Prefers Not To, tells the story of a woman radicalized against the patriarchy by her very first hot flash. It is a blazing anthem for anyone ready to rewrite the rules. (coming October 14, 2025)
Her third novel, Agatha Arch Is Afraid of Everything, was named a Best New Book by People magazine. She is also the author of The Art of Floating and Thirsty, as well as numerous essays about China, bears, adoption, off-the-plot expats, and more. Her work has appeared in The Gettysburg Review, The Baltimore Review, The Manifest-Station, Flying: Journal of Writing and Environment, The Christian Science Monitor, Poets & Writers Magazine, Writer’s Digest, and other publications.
With a BA from Indiana University and an MFA in fiction writing from Columbia College Chicago, Kristin has a proven track record of helping writers find their voices and shape their strongest material. She currently teaches in the MA in Writing Program at Johns Hopkins University and annually at the Yale Writers’ Workshop.
In addition, she is an Associate Fiction Editor for Pangyrus, a literary magazine based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
A native Pittsburgher, Kristin now lives north of Boston with her husband and two kiddos. Follow her on TikTok and Instagram: @kbairokeeffe.
Her third novel, Agatha Arch Is Afraid of Everything, was named a Best New Book by People magazine. She is also the author of The Art of Floating and Thirsty, as well as numerous essays about China, bears, adoption, off-the-plot expats, and more. Her work has appeared in The Gettysburg Review, The Baltimore Review, The Manifest-Station, Flying: Journal of Writing and Environment, The Christian Science Monitor, Poets & Writers Magazine, Writer’s Digest, and other publications.
With a BA from Indiana University and an MFA in fiction writing from Columbia College Chicago, Kristin has a proven track record of helping writers find their voices and shape their strongest material. She currently teaches in the MA in Writing Program at Johns Hopkins University and annually at the Yale Writers’ Workshop.
In addition, she is an Associate Fiction Editor for Pangyrus, a literary magazine based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
A native Pittsburgher, Kristin now lives north of Boston with her husband and two kiddos. Follow her on TikTok and Instagram: @kbairokeeffe.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
June 16, 2010
The original version of this review is linked at Layers of Thought.
This is a historical fiction novel with a theme revolving around faith and domestic violence.
About Thirsty: The setting is the late 1800’s. Klara is a young Croatian woman whom meets her would be husband on the front door step or her father’s home. At once the two are linked. A chemistry of sorts, which is much deeper than it seems.
Driven by their intense attraction, and as a way to leave her abusive father’s home and the care of her many sisters and brothers (her mother is dead), Klara returns to America with her new husband to a town called Thirsty.
Thirsty is your typical factory centered town of the period. It is a place rife with racism, extreme social class distinctions, as well as smoke and greasy ash from the local foundry. This factory is the city’s economic engine providing a glimpse into the era; a time when hungry workers were essentially treated as a commodity and where their lives were as expendable as animals and very often lost.
As the story progresses we see Klara’s perspective, feel her strength, and hear her voice through her complex emotions as her life continues. As she becomes settled into the community and her life stumbles on, she realizes more and more, that her husband is very much like her father.
My Thoughts: This historical fiction is at once heartbreaking yet lyrical. It looks at a person’s beliefs and patterns which are exchanged from generation to generation. In this case it is based on domestic violence and from my understanding is called “the cycle of abuse”. It is exemplified by the main character who watches as her mother is beaten by her father, and she in turn, by default chooses a man who is also of this nature. So this cycle continues - sadly passing onto her daughter as well.
I enjoyed this little book. It is descriptive of this time and has a touch of the magical; several spectacular natural events, one of which is pictured on the cover (butterflies being my favorite). The author also has a sweet and easy to read writing style almost like poetry.
However, being a mostly secular person, I did have a tough time dealing with a complete page detailing “God’s Will”, where every other phrase contains the words “God’s Will”. I see where this may appeal to those whom are passionate about their faith. My biggest problem with this, however, is that an abused women cannot wait on the “Will of God” to intervene. Those whom are being abused need to take the steps necessary to walk away from their abusers.
It is my hope that this is what the author intended, as a jumping place for a discussion around this scary and life threatening issue. To facilitate women into taking the life saving steps that are needed, beyond their religious beliefs. Other than my above concerns, I enjoyed this book.
*It is also important to note that the book contains graphic violence and that there is also strong sexual scenes running through its pages.*
February 2, 2011
Kristin Bair O’Keeffe’s debut novel, Thirsty, professes to be a novel about domestic abuse, its horrible legacy and one woman’s struggle to get out from under its damaging fist.
The novel opens in Croatia in 1883: “In the beginning, Drago smelled of dirt and bloom, the odor that would rise if you peeled the earth back at its seams.”
Klara is just 16 when Drago arrives on her doorstep. Her mother is dead; her father is mean; she’s responsible for looking after five younger siblings and she dreams of a better life somewhere else. Drago is handsome and he’s going to America.
Thirsty is a pretty compelling story, but there’s too much story here for 200 pages. I never felt like I knew any of the characters well enough to really understand their motivations, fears, dreams. The book covers 40 years and, honestly, it felt unfinished to me.
Klara learns pretty early on in her marriage that Drago is just as violent as her father. Why? Who knows. We do learn, half way through the book, that he loved someone else - a blonde woman who married his brother. When Klara decides, out of the blue, to get her hair dyed – of all things – blonde and Drago beats the crap out of her, Drago’s reminiscence seems less like character development and more like plot contrivance.
Klara’s daughter, Sky, grows up to be promiscuous – clearly searching for something to take away the pain of having watched her mother be her father’s punching bag. Then she marries an abusive man. We get a page and a half of his story and then eight years zip by and Sky and her two young daughters arrive on her parent’s doorstep. She’s a mess.
Thirsty felt like a string of little set pieces strung together, rather than a novel with a central character we understood or could root for. My frustration with Klara wasn’t because she didn’t leave Drago. I understand well enough the psychology of battered wife syndrome. My problem was that I just didn’t care.
I might have given up on the novel all together if it hadn’t been for the fact that the writing was quite lovely at times. But as a story of abuse and one woman’s efforts to break free – it falls short. The ending is not a triumph for Klara. Ultimately Klara’s new life, when it begins, has more to do with good luck than good management.
The novel opens in Croatia in 1883: “In the beginning, Drago smelled of dirt and bloom, the odor that would rise if you peeled the earth back at its seams.”
Klara is just 16 when Drago arrives on her doorstep. Her mother is dead; her father is mean; she’s responsible for looking after five younger siblings and she dreams of a better life somewhere else. Drago is handsome and he’s going to America.
Thirsty is a pretty compelling story, but there’s too much story here for 200 pages. I never felt like I knew any of the characters well enough to really understand their motivations, fears, dreams. The book covers 40 years and, honestly, it felt unfinished to me.
Klara learns pretty early on in her marriage that Drago is just as violent as her father. Why? Who knows. We do learn, half way through the book, that he loved someone else - a blonde woman who married his brother. When Klara decides, out of the blue, to get her hair dyed – of all things – blonde and Drago beats the crap out of her, Drago’s reminiscence seems less like character development and more like plot contrivance.
Klara’s daughter, Sky, grows up to be promiscuous – clearly searching for something to take away the pain of having watched her mother be her father’s punching bag. Then she marries an abusive man. We get a page and a half of his story and then eight years zip by and Sky and her two young daughters arrive on her parent’s doorstep. She’s a mess.
Thirsty felt like a string of little set pieces strung together, rather than a novel with a central character we understood or could root for. My frustration with Klara wasn’t because she didn’t leave Drago. I understand well enough the psychology of battered wife syndrome. My problem was that I just didn’t care.
I might have given up on the novel all together if it hadn’t been for the fact that the writing was quite lovely at times. But as a story of abuse and one woman’s efforts to break free – it falls short. The ending is not a triumph for Klara. Ultimately Klara’s new life, when it begins, has more to do with good luck than good management.
September 30, 2010
While I truly enjoyed reading the first half of this very short novel, it all went downhill from about the mid-point. The opening of this novel presents a girl of 16, who grabs hopefully at the opportunity, presented by a stranger man at her door, to escape her limited existence spent caring for her younger siblings in a small Croatian village. Klara Bozic emigrates to a steel town on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, only to find she is stuck in a bleak landscape with an abusive husband. The author presents the struggles faced by steelworkers, who toiled under unsafe conditions, often leading to injury and death, and the women in their lives, who relied on each other for emotional support. By mid-way through the story, it seemed the author narrowed her focus on the domestic violence, extending through generations of Bozic women, at the expense of the larger narrative of the steelworker community. By novel's end, the author introduced elements of fairy tale that seem incongruous to the rest of the story to arrive at an unsurprising, yet hopeful, ending.
June 17, 2009
A debut novel that is artfully told and full of literary surprises, Kristin Bair O’Keeffe’s Thirsty tackles oppression at the turn of the twentieth century without wincing. . . . Stark, poetic, and brimming with hope, Thirsty glimpses the uncomfortable truth about what it means to house a battered heart and live a life shackled by seemingly insurmountable circumstances.
April 6, 2023
I rediscovered this book on my tbr and requested it from the library. I had high hopes in the beginning, but was somewhat disappointed. Although much of the writing was beautiful and descriptive, there was too much violence. In addition, although the chapters are dated by year (1883-1919), the story seemed to jump around too much and lack some continuity.
I much preferred Out of This Furnace by Thomas Bell, which tells a similar story.
Klara meets, and quickly marries, her husband, Drago, when he shows up at the door of her father's home in Croatia. The newlyweds sail to the U.S. and settle in a Pittsburgh area river town, nicknamed Thirsty, where Drago gets a job in the steel mill. Drago seems suddenly transformed into an abusive, uncaring husband to both Klara and their eventual daughter and two sons. There are some kind of mystical elements to the story, such as the butterflies "miracle" and the bird and the carnival, but, to me, these just seemed to be weird elements.
"I'm in a place with no walls today, and I need something to hold on to." (128)
"Just inside, Klara sat at the kitchen table spooning sorrow and sugar into muffin tins." (202)
I much preferred Out of This Furnace by Thomas Bell, which tells a similar story.
Klara meets, and quickly marries, her husband, Drago, when he shows up at the door of her father's home in Croatia. The newlyweds sail to the U.S. and settle in a Pittsburgh area river town, nicknamed Thirsty, where Drago gets a job in the steel mill. Drago seems suddenly transformed into an abusive, uncaring husband to both Klara and their eventual daughter and two sons. There are some kind of mystical elements to the story, such as the butterflies "miracle" and the bird and the carnival, but, to me, these just seemed to be weird elements.
"I'm in a place with no walls today, and I need something to hold on to." (128)
"Just inside, Klara sat at the kitchen table spooning sorrow and sugar into muffin tins." (202)
January 12, 2026
The story of Klara, a Croatian immigrant who comes to Pennsylvania with a new husband excited to begin a new chapter of her life. What she finds is a town suffocated by the nearby steel mill, and husband just as brutal as her father. The characters are intricate and lovable; the story is beautiful and important to tell.
I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoyed A Tree Grows in Brooklyn or The Book of Ruth. The story carries you along a woman's life the same way that ATGB does, and shows the true horror of domestic & emotional violence in the way that The Book of Ruth does.
I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoyed A Tree Grows in Brooklyn or The Book of Ruth. The story carries you along a woman's life the same way that ATGB does, and shows the true horror of domestic & emotional violence in the way that The Book of Ruth does.
April 5, 2015
This is the story of a woman named Klara Bozic. The book starts in 1883 when Klara marries Drago and together they move from Croatia to Pennsylvania, settling in a town nicknamed "Thirsty" by the locals. Klara has visions of a pretty house surrounded by green meadows and flowering orchards, but Thirsty is a dismal steel mill town with filled with a putrid yellow smoke and the stench of rotten eggs. The men work in the steel mill: a brutal place with a high death rate. Her marriage is also a disappointment; her husband is cruel and abusive. Only the friendships that she builds with her neighbors will sustain her over the coming years.
What I liked about this book was the way it hooked me in almost immediately. From the first sentence I was in love with the way that Kristin Bair O'Keeffe writes. Her writing is wonderfully descriptive, almost poetic: you feel as if she took her time crafting every sentence. The book also has a great sense of place - I really felt like I could see and smell the town of Thirsty.
Klara and Drago's relationship is complex and the book gets you thinking about abusive relationships and the parts that both parties play in them. Yes, Klara is the victim but she's also sometimes the aggressor. Sometimes Drago is a monster and sometimes there are also moments of tenderness between them. It felt like a far more rounded portrait of an abusive relationship than the black and white one portrayed in books like A Thousand Splendid Suns.
Where the book failed for me is that I realized I didn't really care about Klara and I cared even less about her sketchily drawn daughter Sky. So instead of the tension building over the course of the book, I found that I got less interested in it as I read on (although I was still curious to see where it would go). The book spans over 40 years and the jumps in time sometimes made it seem disjointed and episodic.
Nevertheless, Kristin Bair O'Keeffe is a highly talented new writer and I will be hoping to read more from her in the future.
What I liked about this book was the way it hooked me in almost immediately. From the first sentence I was in love with the way that Kristin Bair O'Keeffe writes. Her writing is wonderfully descriptive, almost poetic: you feel as if she took her time crafting every sentence. The book also has a great sense of place - I really felt like I could see and smell the town of Thirsty.
Klara and Drago's relationship is complex and the book gets you thinking about abusive relationships and the parts that both parties play in them. Yes, Klara is the victim but she's also sometimes the aggressor. Sometimes Drago is a monster and sometimes there are also moments of tenderness between them. It felt like a far more rounded portrait of an abusive relationship than the black and white one portrayed in books like A Thousand Splendid Suns.
Where the book failed for me is that I realized I didn't really care about Klara and I cared even less about her sketchily drawn daughter Sky. So instead of the tension building over the course of the book, I found that I got less interested in it as I read on (although I was still curious to see where it would go). The book spans over 40 years and the jumps in time sometimes made it seem disjointed and episodic.
Nevertheless, Kristin Bair O'Keeffe is a highly talented new writer and I will be hoping to read more from her in the future.
December 11, 2009
Thirsty follows the life of Klara Bozic as she immigrates to a small town, Thirsty, from her home in Croatia. The story evolves over 40 years of her life. She meets her husband, Drago, and he seems like the dream of every young girl – until they get to America. Once there, he becomes abusive toward Klara and the façade crumbles. As the cycle begins to repeat for her daughter, Sky, Klara knows that something has to be done.
This book spans the time period from 1883 to 1919. The steel boom is underway and it was fascinating to learn about how these small towns thrived around the factories. The people that lived there were completely ruled by the factory. One of the things that was very interesting to me was the death whistle. This whistle went off every time that someone was killed in the factory – and all of the women in town would walk down to the factory to learn who it was. How sad! This book was so well researched – right down to all of the little details.
I immediately was drawn into Klara’s life – her story was the story of many immigrant women who came to the United States. Domestic abuse was common and many dreamed of finding something better. I loved how O’Keeffe followed Klara as she evolved from a naïve young girl, moved into a broken, shell of herself, and then became empowered by the desire to break the cycle. O’Keeffe created a foil character for her in her neighbor Katherine. Katherine was an immigrant woman too but her husband was a perfect husband. He would even run over to break up fights at the Bozic household.
This book was immediately absorbing and I didn’t want it to end. I loved that this book really made me feel much closer to my family heritage – which is a new feeling for me because I never really put much thought into it before.
This book was received for review from the publisher - I was not compensated for my opinions and the above is my honest review.
This book spans the time period from 1883 to 1919. The steel boom is underway and it was fascinating to learn about how these small towns thrived around the factories. The people that lived there were completely ruled by the factory. One of the things that was very interesting to me was the death whistle. This whistle went off every time that someone was killed in the factory – and all of the women in town would walk down to the factory to learn who it was. How sad! This book was so well researched – right down to all of the little details.
I immediately was drawn into Klara’s life – her story was the story of many immigrant women who came to the United States. Domestic abuse was common and many dreamed of finding something better. I loved how O’Keeffe followed Klara as she evolved from a naïve young girl, moved into a broken, shell of herself, and then became empowered by the desire to break the cycle. O’Keeffe created a foil character for her in her neighbor Katherine. Katherine was an immigrant woman too but her husband was a perfect husband. He would even run over to break up fights at the Bozic household.
This book was immediately absorbing and I didn’t want it to end. I loved that this book really made me feel much closer to my family heritage – which is a new feeling for me because I never really put much thought into it before.
This book was received for review from the publisher - I was not compensated for my opinions and the above is my honest review.
December 31, 2009
‘You are home, lady. This is your home now. There is no going back.’
It is 1883, and all of Klara Bozic’s dreams are shattered when she arrives in Thirsty, a small steel town just outside Pittsburgh. Klara though that she was escaping from abuse when she left her father in Croatia to emigrate with her husband to America. Instead, she finds that her husband Drago is just as abusive.
This novel covers over 40 years of Klara’s life: the hopelessness of familial cycles of poverty and abuse, and of learned patterns of behaviour. To break this cycle takes a particular set of circumstances and strengths, and some very special friends.
In many ways this is a bleak novel. Klara’s daughter, Sky, has her own challenges and demons largely as a consequence of growing up in a violent home. In turn, Sky enters into an abusive marriage and it is this which ultimately leads to Klara finding the strength to move on.
There are some bleak moments in this novel: violence and death walk together in Klara’s life. There are also some wonderful moments: a visit by butterflies; various friendships that Klara forms and at the end the promise of a better life. And, perhaps, that is Klara’s real migration experience: the opportunity to leave the world of abuse and start afresh.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
It is 1883, and all of Klara Bozic’s dreams are shattered when she arrives in Thirsty, a small steel town just outside Pittsburgh. Klara though that she was escaping from abuse when she left her father in Croatia to emigrate with her husband to America. Instead, she finds that her husband Drago is just as abusive.
This novel covers over 40 years of Klara’s life: the hopelessness of familial cycles of poverty and abuse, and of learned patterns of behaviour. To break this cycle takes a particular set of circumstances and strengths, and some very special friends.
In many ways this is a bleak novel. Klara’s daughter, Sky, has her own challenges and demons largely as a consequence of growing up in a violent home. In turn, Sky enters into an abusive marriage and it is this which ultimately leads to Klara finding the strength to move on.
There are some bleak moments in this novel: violence and death walk together in Klara’s life. There are also some wonderful moments: a visit by butterflies; various friendships that Klara forms and at the end the promise of a better life. And, perhaps, that is Klara’s real migration experience: the opportunity to leave the world of abuse and start afresh.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
January 26, 2010
Thirsty by Kristin Bair O'Keefe is historical fiction that resonates with today's reader. "I am unhappy. I despise my husband. I settled in ways I'd never planned. I am not honest. All my life I've shared in lies. I lied to my children, told them this world was good and kind despite their father's cruelty," words from Klara, the main character of this stunning debut novel. Klara leaves Croatia in 1883 at the age of sixteen and marries Drago to escape the fists of her father and the never-ending care of her five siblings. They come to American looking for a better life and instead find Thirsty, Pennsylvania, a coal mining town that seems colored in shades of mustard yellow, black, and red and free of any beauty. Klara and Drago's marriage quickly falls into the pattern of Klara's parents: screams, abuse, black eyes and bloody noses. Into this dark world, Klara brings three children, including daughter Sky who eventually continues the family tradition of violent marriage. The novel follows over thirty years of Klara's life as she faces death, loss, and grief beyond imagine. O'Keefe's voice is bruising in its brutal honesty about the legacy of familial abuse, but she leaves the reader breathless and with just a hint of hope for the fate of Sky's daughters. This is a novel that just won't let the reader go even with the turn of the final page.
July 4, 2013
Sigh. I picked this up from a friend's shelf thinking it was something else. I gave it a shot because it appeared to touch on a point in history and an American experience from a new angle. That was not the case. It's hard to decide whether this book is a truncated epic or an overextended short story. Some story lines and characters seemed to be developing but then petered out while others seemed superfluous. Some of the language was beautiful but in a way that was disconnected from the entire tale. It is very difficult for me to give so few stars to something that was obviously labored over, but I cannot honestly rate it any higher.
February 16, 2010
Well written, with fluid prose and well developed characters. Interview with author Kristin Bair O'Keeffe: Interview.
The book shows the longterm effects of domestic abuse on individuals and the family, as well as the hardship of life for families dependent on the steel mill industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. More...
The book shows the longterm effects of domestic abuse on individuals and the family, as well as the hardship of life for families dependent on the steel mill industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. More...
January 14, 2014
I thought it was a brilliant novella. Stunning in its nuanced relationships and transformations. Moving and poignant in its tale of a woman disillusioned and having to find the courage to make a new life for herself, with a little help. Lifts a hidden veil from the experience of abuse and alcoholism associated, in this instance, with coal mining. Represents the potential of the author for story telling and tale spinning. I read the book when it was published in Shanghai
July 27, 2011
I re-read this book for my book group meeting on 7/26/2011. I noticed things in the second reading that I did not catch in my first reading. The descriptive passages of people and place are what makes the novel and it's hardscrabble story.
May 13, 2010
The only part I didn't like were the overly descriptive unnecessary 'bedroom' scenes. They could have been described with much less detail
August 22, 2012
Everything I love in historical fiction: a sense of time and place, a good story, a look into another life and time. Lovely.
October 18, 2012
Wee bit thin on character, but lush writing and a true love of location that resonates.
January 3, 2012
I loved this book.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews