The Librarian
The Top 10 Sunday Times Bestseller
Published on 26. April 2018
Book
Hardback
400 pages
978-0-241-32173-7 (ISBN)
Description
A charmingly subversive novel about a library in 1950s England, by the acclaimed author of The Cleaner of Chartres
Sylvia Blackwell, a young woman in her twenties, moves to East Mole, a quaint market town in middle England, to start a new job as a children's librarian. But the apparently pleasant town is not all it seems. Sylvia falls in love with an older man - but it's her connectionto his precocious young daughter and her neighbours' son which will change her life and put them, the library and her job under threat.
How does the library alter the young children's lives and how do the children fare as a result of the books Sylvia introduces them to?
Sylvia Blackwell, a young woman in her twenties, moves to East Mole, a quaint market town in middle England, to start a new job as a children's librarian. But the apparently pleasant town is not all it seems. Sylvia falls in love with an older man - but it's her connectionto his precocious young daughter and her neighbours' son which will change her life and put them, the library and her job under threat.
How does the library alter the young children's lives and how do the children fare as a result of the books Sylvia introduces them to?
Reviews / Votes
The Librarian will wring the heart of anyone who fell in love with books as a child. It is a hymn to the power of children's literature...delightful * The Times * A nostalgic treat...involving and hopeful * Mail on Sunday * No one can dig down into the shrouded recesses of the human heart quite as forensically as Vickers * Sunday Times * Vickers writes of relationships with undaunted clarity -- Adam Phillips Vickers lays bare the inner workings of one family, possibly every family, with an often disconcerting clarity * The Times on 'Cousins' * Vickers' real skill as a story teller is in allowing each distinct voice to contribute to a complete, or as complete as can be, picture of one family... the pace gathers, making for a deeply poignant climax * Financial Times on 'Cousins' * Quirky and charming * Love It! * This beautifully crafted novel is a tribute to the power of books * S Magazine, Sunday Express * Excellent... a period tale of sentimental education, it's deliciously readable, with a clever epilogue zooming into the present day for a last gasp surprise * Daily Mail *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Penguin Books Ltd
Dimensions
Height: 204 mm
Width: 138 mm
Thickness: 32 mm
Weight
413 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-241-32173-7 (9780241321737)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
04/2018
1st Edition
Penguin Books Ltd
€8.49
Available for download
Person
Salley Vickers is the author of many novels, including Miss Garnet's Angel, The Cleaner of Chartres and Cousins. She has worked as a teacher of children with special needs, a university teacher of literature and a psychoanalyst. She now writes fulltime and divides her time between London and Wiltshire. She attributes such success as she has achieved in life to an early love of reading.