Fabulous Fiction Firsts #662, “When all else fails, give up and go to the library. " ~ Stephen King

Wed, 03/28/2018 - 8:53am by muffy

Rhodes Scholar and Guggenheim fellow, Sue Halper sets her fiction debut Summer Hours at the Robbers Library * * in Riverton, NH, a once prosperous mill town now in decline. The public library, a gift from local business mogul Albert Robers (drawing comparison to Andrew Carnegie of the "Robber" baron fame) is a beacon for lost souls, being the only well-maintained building in town.

There is Kit, the librarian, acerbic and secretive, seeking solitude and anonymity from a traumatic past; Sunny, the 15 year-old juvenile offender, sentenced to community service at the library for shoplifting a dictionary; and Rusty, a Wall Street high-roller, adrift without a parachute, hanging onto the library’s wifi connection as if a lifeline. Over the course of a summer, these individuals will come to realize that family is not a matter of blood, but those who will stand by you in adversity.  (* * = 2 starred reviews)

Suggested read-alike - Felicity Hayes-McCoy's  U.S. debut The Library at the Edge of the World, where a librarian must find a way to rebuild her community and her own life on Ireland’s stunning West Coast.