Rebecca Makkai

A successful film professor and podcaster, Bodie Kane is content to forget her past--the family tragedy that marred her adolescence, her four largely miserable years at a New Hampshire boarding school, and the murder of her former roommate, Thalia Keith, in the spring of their senior year. Though the circumstances surrounding Thalia's death and the conviction of the school's athletic trainer, Omar Evans, are hotly debated online, Bodie prefers--needs--to...

Lucy Hull, a young children's librarian in Hannibal, Missouri, stumbles into a moral dilemma when she finds her favorite patron, ten-year-old Ian Drake, camped out in the library after hours. Addicted to reading, Ian needs help smuggling books past his overbearing mother, who has enrolled Ian in antigay classes with Pastor Bob. Desperate to save Ian, Lucy allows herself to be hijacked--and the odd pair embarks on a crazy road trip.

Presents a collection of wide-ranging, evocative short stories, including several inspired by the author's family history or featuring protagonists whose lives are shaped by irony.