Summer Hours at the Robbers Library

I read this Advanced Reading Copy in exchange for a fair review. I liked this book. I expected it to have a cast of somewhat crazy characters which it did not. It was a thoughtful novel on small town life, finding our way, and finding a way to belong to our fellow humans. The preface tells the story of Kit falling in love with the man who became her husband. Kit has been working in the library of a small town in NH for 4 years, escaping from her previous life as a wife and compliant mate. The isolation and privacy she surrounds herself with is her way of facing the rest of her life. The focus of the book is the relationships between Kit and other regulars who use the library. Interspersed, we learn the details of Kit's marriage and divorce. We also learn about the lives of a young girl, Sunny, and a man named Rusty, both of whom work their way into Kit's orbit through their daily visits to the library. The characters are very introspective and interesting, each in their own way. I thought the book got off to a slow start but Sue Halpern did a wonderful job of character development and I became invested in all their lives. For me, that's a sign of a good book.

Literary comfort food.

This had such a promising start, but ended unevenly. For example, the ex-financier character who's supposed to be thawing out the protagonist never seems fully there, and we wonder why she'd warm to him, while the more minor character of Sunny's father is fully fleshed out. But many who frequent libraries and find them restful, or even healing, may like this multilayered story just fine.