Ian Sansom lives in Northern Ireland and is a regular contributor to The Guardian and the London Review of Books. He is a former fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge and the writer in residence at the Heaney Centre. Sansom’s novel, The Bad Book Affair: A Mobile Library Mystery, published by Harper, is the fourth novel in the Mobile Library Mystery Series. And it’s a winner!
Israel Armstrong is a lot of things; he’s English, Jewish, approaching thirty, definitely a vegetarian, is a bit of a detective, he’s the local librarian and he thinks of himself as a misplaced person. Israel may be a librarian, but not in the traditional sense. He travels the north coast of Ireland in a mobile library.
Israel’s birthday celebrations are halted when the teen-age daughter, (Lyndsay Morris) of a local politician in Tumdrum goes missing. Israel refers to Lyndsay as Goth because of her look. He lent her the book (from the Unshelved books--those that are, ahem, controversial), American Pastoral and suspects her disappearance is connected to that. But it’s ever so important to locate her before the town takes it out on him. They seem to think there is a connection between Israel and Lyndsay’s disappearance.
This missing person situation could not have happened at a worse time as Israel is recovering from his break-up with Gloria, his long time girlfriend. She up and left Israel without explanation. Whew! Israel has a lot going on, just before his job review.
But lest there be time for Israel to be bored between searching for Lyndsay and mourning Gloria’s loss, don’t fear dear reader, Israel manages to keep busy. There’s a bit of a drunken Bible trivia night at the pub, and then there are the antics of Ted Carson and be on the look-out for a chicken-coop. The coops current use will make you laugh out loud.
There are misunderstandings, inspiration, introspection and the realization that home is home, even if it is a little place on the map called Tumdrum.
The Bad Book Affair is my first foray into Ian Sansom’s unique world. I vow to devour the first three as quickly as possible. Sansom pokes fun at everything humans hold dear and does it in such a way that we realize we take ourselves, our beliefs and positions, far too seriously many times. I laughed, I felt a tinge of sadness and I realized that this author took me to a place that far too few authors do and I went willingly on his quirky little roller coaster ride. I think I’m in love.
Comments