FICTION

Summer Hours at the Robbers Library

by Sue Halpern
Harper Perennial. Feb. 2018. 384p. ISBN 9780062678966. pap. $15.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062678973. F
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Back when Andrew Carnegie was building public libraries in every city across America, the town of Riverton, NH, had its own mogul, whose name was Robers, which morphed into "Robbers" through probably equal parts humor and resentment. The town barely hangs on, but the library is now its best-maintained building. Halpern (Dog Walks into a Nursing Home) brings together three oddball characters in this setting and follows them through their encounters with multiple points of view. There is librarian Kit, fresh from therapy following marriage to a controlling monster, Solstice (Sunny), a teenager whose parents live off the grid and hide a secret past, and Rusty, a fugitive from Wall Street. When Sunny is assigned community service at the library after being arrested for shoplifting, she soon connects with Kit and Rusty.
VERDICT Fans of Felicity Hayes-McCoy's The Library at the Edge of the World will be taken with this beautifully written novel with appealing characters. Given that the author's plot line stretches typical library policy a bit, it's bound to stir some lively book-club discussions about public libraries and their operations.
Reviewed by Mary K. Bird-Guilliams, Chicago , Jan 01, 2018
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