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Mobile Library: A Novel Audiobook
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Publisher Description
From the award-winning novelist David Whitehouse, hailed by The New York Times as “a writer to watch,” a tragicomic adventure about a troubled adolescent boy who escapes his small town in a stolen library-on-wheels.
“An archivist of his mother,” Bobby Nusku spends his nights meticulously cataloging her hair, clothing, and other traces of the life she left behind. By day, Bobby and his best friend Sunny hatch a plan to transform Sunny, limb-by-limb, into a cyborg who could keep Bobby safe from schoolyard torment and from Bobby’s abusive father and his bleach-blonde girlfriend. When Sunny is injured in a freak accident, Bobby is forced to face the world alone.
Out in the neighborhood, Bobby encounters Rosa, a peculiar girl whose disability invites the scorn of bullies. When Bobby takes Rosa home, he meets her mother, Val, a lonely divorcee, whose job is cleaning a mobile library. Bobby and Val come to fill the emotional void in each other’s lives, but their bond also draws unwanted attention. After Val loses her job and Bobby is beaten by his father, they abscond in the sixteen-wheel bookmobile. On the road they are joined by Joe, a mysterious but kindhearted ex-soldier. This “puzzle of people” will travel across England, a picaresque adventure that comes to rival those in the classic books that fill their library-on-wheels.
At once tender, provocative and darkly funny, Mobile Library is a fable about the intrinsic human desire to be loved and understood—and about one boy’s realization that the kinds of adventures found in books can happen in real life. It is the ingenious second novel by a writer whose prose has been hailed as “outlandishly clever” (The New York Times) and “deceptively effortless” (The Boston Globe).
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“Tim Gerard Reynolds narrates with a quietly unassuming English voice as he brings to life Whitehouse’s poignant novel…Reynolds’ sensitive handling of Rosa’s and Val’s voices draws in the listener just as Bobby is drawn in to their family.”
— AudioFile
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“A great read and a touching and funny exploration of the true meaning of family.”
— S. J. Watson, author of the New York Times bestseller Before I Go to Sleep -
“Book lovers will be charmed by Mobile Library…It’s a funny coming-of-age tale.”
— Good Housekeeping -
“The quirkiest plot we’ve seen for a while…making for a magical literary tour that evokes how the books we read as children inspire us. Heartwarming and heartbreaking in equal measure.”
— Glamour -
“Outlandishly clever description…Ingenious one-liners…There’s no question that [David Whitehouse] is a writer to watch.”
— New York Times -
“A beautifully written ode to childhood innocence.”
— Marie Claire -
“Powerful, eccentric…Whitehouse’s writing is energetic and pacey, spiked with startling moments of tenderness and superbly controlled. Don’t wait for the inevitable film.”
— Times (London) -
“Brilliant. Every page is filled with beautifully crafted sentences in a story replete with pathos and humor.”
— Huffington Post -
“An agreeably old-fashioned story with likable characters and just enough suspense to keep the pages turning. And who can resist a novel about a mobile library?”
— Booklist -
“A great, tender-hearted story about stories. It’s a book about what books can give us, and how they can add to our adventure—or even take us on one. A lovely read.”
— Matt Haig, author of The Radleys
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About David Whitehouse
David Whitehouse’s first novel, Bed, winner of the 2012 Betty Trask Prize, has been published in eighteen countries. He has several TV and film projects in development with Film4, Warp, the BBC, and others. He writes regularly for the Guardian and the Times and is currently the editor-at-large of ShortList magazine.
About Tim Gerard Reynolds
Tim Gerard Reynolds is an established audiobook narrator who has won several AudioFile Earphones Awards and was a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award for Best Fantasy Narration. He trained for the stage at the Samuel Beckett Center at Trinity College in Dublin and the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center in New London, Connecticut.