← Back to discovery

The borrower

Rebecca Makkai

2011324 pagesabout 5–7 hours
2011
first published
  • 2011Viking · 324 pages · ENGISBN 9780670022816
  • 2011Heinemann · 324 pages · ENGISBN 9780434021000
  • 2011Penguin Random House · 336 pages · ENGISBN 9781446457825
  • 2012Windmill · ENGISBN 9780099538127
  • 2012Penguin Publishing Group · ENGISBN 9780143120957
  • 2011HighBridge AudioISBN 9781611744460
  • 2011Highbridge CoISBN 9781617075612

Lucy Hull, a young children's librarian in Hannibal, Missouri, finds herself both a kidnapper and kidnapped when her favorite patron, ten-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?

How it reads

Character focusSingle lead
How do you feel?