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The Borrower

A Novel

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The Borrower

Written by: Rebecca Makkai
Narrated by: Kristen Sieh
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About this listen

In this delightful, funny, and moving first novel, a librarian and a young boy obsessed with reading take to the road.

Lucy Hull, a young children's librarian in Hannibal, Missouri, finds herself both a kidnapper and kidnapped when her favorite patron, 10-year-old Ian Drake, runs away from home. The precocious Ian is addicted to reading but needs Lucy's help to smuggle books past his overbearing mother, who has enrolled Ian in weekly antigay classes with celebrity Pastor Bob. Lucy stumbles into a moral dilemma when she finds Ian camped out in the library after hours with a knapsack of provisions and an escape plan.

Desperate to save him from Pastor Bob and the Drakes, Lucy allows herself to be hijacked by Ian. The odd pair embarks on a crazy road trip from Missouri to Vermont, with ferrets, an inconvenient boyfriend, and upsetting family history thrown in their path. But is it just Ian who is running away? Who is the man who seems to be on their tail? And should Lucy be trying to save a boy from his own parents?

©2011 Rebecca Makkai (P)2020 Penguin Audio Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction Funny
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What the critics say

"Rarely is a first novel as smart and engaging and learned and funny and moving as The Borrower. Rebecca Makkai is a writer to watch, as sneakily ambitious as she is unpretentious." (Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of That Old Cape Magic and Empire Falls)

“An appealing, nonromantic love story about an unexpected pairing - and a surprisingly moving one.” (The New York Times)

“This comical and touching book strikes a nice balance between literary artistry and gripping storytelling, and offers a contemporary take on the classic 'journey of discovery.'... Right up to the book’s satisfying and well-plotted ending, Makkai shows us that even though the stories we are told as children are often fount to betray us as mere fantasy, there might still be some wisdom in the one of their most common and simple morals: Be true to yourself.” (The Daily Beast, selected as one of "3 Must Read Novels")

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Profile Image for Alan Ranta

Unbelievable and Forgettable

Imagine you work at a library, and you find someone's child has spent the night there. The kid is running away from home. You decide to help them, and so you drive them aimlessly across the country. You would go to jail. This is a truly dumb book. The narrator is okay, but has nothing substantial to work with.

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