The Borrower

By Rebecca Makkai

Book Overview

The first novel from the acclaimed author of The Great Believers

"Rarely is a first novel as smart and engaging and learned and funny and moving as The Borrower." --Richard Russo, author of Pulitzer Prize-winning Empire Falls

Lucy Hull, a children's librarian in Hannibal, Missouri, finds herself both kidnapper and kidnapped when her favorite patron, ten-year-old Ian Drake, runs away from home. Ian needs Lucy's help to smuggle books past his overbearing mother, who has enrolled Ian in weekly antigay classes. Desperate to save him from the Drakes, Lucy allows herself to be hijacked by Ian when she finds him camped out in the library after hours, and the odd pair embarks on a crazy road trip. But is it just Ian who is running away? And should Lucy be trying to save a boy from his own parents?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143120956
• ISBN13: 9780143120957
• Release Date: May 2012
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 7.7"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A delightful road trip

What a fun and funny story. Having already read Makkai's "The Great Believers" (one of my all-time favorites), I was sure I'd love "The Borrower." And I did!!! A precocious kid and a restless librarian kidnap each other and, well, leave. The writing is fabulous, charming, witty. Two thumbs up -- surrounding by hearts and smiley faces.