~ Hardcover
~ Winner of the California Book Award for Nonfiction Gold - 2018
On the morning of April 29, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. Not just a test of the alarm system, this fire was disastrous, reaching 2000 degrees and burning for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more. More than thirty years later, the mystery remains: Did someone purposefully set fire to the library, and if so, who?
A dazzling love letter to a beloved institution, and an investigation into one of its greatest mysteries, The Library Book is a thrilling journey through the stacks that reveals how these beloved institutions provide much more than just books, and why they remain an essential part of the heart, mind, and soul of people.
"A loving tribute not just to a place or an institution but to an idea, The Library Book is about the fire and the mystery of how it started, but in some ways that’s the least of it. It’s also a history of libraries, and of a particular library, as well as the personal story of Susan Orlean and her mother, who was losing her memory to dementia while Orlean was writing this book.” -- The New York Times