The Library at the Edge of the World

I gravitate towards any book that has library or bookshop in the title so when I saw this book in the library I work at, I was immediately interested.

This book has taken longer than normal to read. Life has been busy with work and study and I didn't really feel like being in a rush with this book. It was quite slow-moving but I think that's what appealed.

The Library at the Edge of the World by Felicity Hayes-McCoy tells the story of librarian Hanna Casey. She works at the Lissberg Library in the fictitious village of Finfarran in Ireland. Conor, a young lad, is the only other worker at the library. The library also has a mobile library which Casey drives along the Finfarran Peninsula and visits various communities. I love the parts set in the library and the mobile library and the characters that they both attract.

Casey, whose daughter has grown up and left home, now lives with her mother but wants to move out and renovate an old run-down bungalow left to her by a great aunt. Meanwhile, all is not as it seems for little Lissberg Library and the community comes together to help ensure its future.

I enjoyed the characters and how the different relationships and tensions within the community and Casey's family were portrayed.

This book is a few years old. It was published in 2016. I loved it so much that as soon I finished it I went online to see if Hayes-McCoy has written a sequel. She has. It was published last year and is called Summer at the Garden Cafe. I've already ordered it.

Footnote: The photo of the book was taken outside the library I work at - Te Aka Mauri - Rotorua Library and Children's Health Hub. This library, which has undergone an amazing refurbishment, is not at the edge of the world or maybe it is - it's in New Zealand in the centre of the North Island.