The Library at the Edge of the World – Felicity Hayes-McCoy

“Everything in life has its time to happen. A time to plant, a time to grow and a time to harvest. And if you take things steady, you´ll bring your harvest home.” (Citation pos. 3113)

Content

Hanna Casey had lived in London, when she divorced after almost 30 years of marriage. Therefore, she came back to Crossarra to live with her mother and she works as librarian of Lissbeg Library. Her great-aunt Maggie had left her old house to Hanna, and with the help of old Fury O’Shea, a local builder, she is going to restore it and make it her home.

Conor is Hanna’s assistant at the library and in his opinion, the library could be really changed and successful. But Hanna would have to change things, be more relaxed about her stringent rules and open to new ideas.

When the Government plans to invest in the area, to close the library and move it to Carrick everything changes. In the convent garden of her former school, Hanna meets Sister Michael and step-by-step plans are developed how to fight back …

Theme and Genre

This is the story about a small village somewhere at the west coast of Ireland and the people living there. Different Governmental ideas about town and area development together with property speculations are an issue too. It is also about family, relationships between parents and children, between neighbors and inhabitants of small places, gossip and misunderstandings. It definitely is a story about books, readers and book lovers and about the beauty of nature of an Irish landscape.

Characters

The author introduces the reader to a quite complicated main character, Hanna, who still mentally struggles about her failed marriage. But as the story continues, Hanna slowly changes, ready to be more open to other people and ready to call Crossarra the place where she now belongs. There may still be many misunderstandings between her and her mother, but family always sticks together, when necessary.

We also meet different people living in the village community: Conor, the young book lover with modern ideas about networking and libraries open to everybody, Fury the builder, an old individualist, special but with a great heart and Sister Michael, the old nun, a wise and excellent strategist, and many others. Each of the characters is understandable and likeable.

Plot and Writing

As the story develops, it is interesting to see how everybody in the area starts to get together, the old-fashioned social networking as it was found for centuries in rural structures comes to life again, but combined with modern social media.

Conclusion

I have enjoyed every page of the book, there are no lengths in this story. I really liked the different characters and recommend this enjoyable, cozy read for a pleasant weekend, ready to be carried off to an imaginary trip to libraries and a small village in Ireland.