The Book Borrower

by Alice Mattison

  It was easy to back the car into the dark, silent street.

  —You could write him a note, said Deborah.

  —Was it true?

  —I love you, Toby, Deborah said.

  —Is there a God? Ruben asked, her eyes on the empty street ahead of her.

  —Yes.

  —What should I do with Peter and Mary Grace?

  —I can’t imagine.

  —I’m making you up. I do know that.

  —Just be kind.

  Ruben drew up to the curb in front of Deborah’s house and parked. Jeremiah, she wrote on a scrap of paper she found in her bag. Thanks for lending me the book. Berry lies constantly. She has been a wonderful woman, but she isn’t perfect and she isn’t truthful. Love, Toby. She got out of the car and ran up on the porch. She placed the copy of Trolley Girl between the screen door and the real door and got back into the car, which was empty. Then she drove to the bus station.

  Acknowledgments

  Friends, colleagues, students, and family members—most noticeably my husband, my three sons, and my honorary daughter—have put up with me and cared about me as I wrote, and I am grateful. For particular help with this book, I’d like to thank Jessica Baumgardner, Susan Bingham, Ruth Buchman, Rebecca Godwin, Donald Hall, Susan Holahan, Edward Mattison, Andrew Mattison, Zoe Pagnamenta, Joyce Peseroff, Sandi Kahn Shelton, and the tireless Claire Wachtel. Additional thanks go to the Corporation of Yaddo, the New Haven Free Public Library, and the Community Soup Kitchen.

  The following books have been especially useful:

  Avrich, Paul. Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America. Abridged edition. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996.

  Cavin, Ruth. Trolleys: Riding and Remembering the Electric Interurban Railways. New York: Hawthorn Books, 1976.

  Fischler, Stanley I. Moving Millions: An Inside Look at Mass

  Transit. New York: Harper and Row, 1979.

  About the Author

  ALICE MATTISON is the author offivenovels, four short story collections, and a volume of poetry. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize, The New Yorker, The Threepenny Review, Glimmer Train, and Ploughshares. She was raised in Brooklyn and studied at Queens College and Harvard University. She teachesfictionin the Bennington Writing Seminars and lives in New Haven, Connecticut.

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  Also by Alice Mattison

  NOVELS

  Nothing Is Quite Forgotten in Brooklyn

  The Wedding of the Two-Headed Woman

  Hilda and Pearl

  Field of Stars

  SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS

  In Case We’re Separated

  Men Giving Money, Women Yelling

  The Flight of Andy Burns

  Great Wits

  POETRY COLLECTION

  Animals

  Copyright

  A hardcover edition of this book was published in 1999 by William Morrow and Company, Inc.

  P.S.™ is a trademark of HarperCollins Publishers.

  THE BOOK BORROWER. Copyright © 1999 by Alice Mattison. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks.

  First Perennial edition published 2000.

  First Harper Perennial edition published 2008.

  The Library of Congress has catalogued the hardcover edition as follows: Mattison, Alice

  The book borrower : a novel / Alice Mattison.—1st ed.

  p. cm.

  ISBN 0-688-16824-8

  I. Title.

  PS3563.A8598B66 1999

  813’.54–dc21

  99-21961

  ISBN 978-0-06-115302-0 (P.S. edition)

  Epub Edition © AUGUST 2012 ISBN: 9780062232014

  08 09 10 11 12 ID/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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