Summary

In the prologue, "Reading List," Aidan visits the Harrow Road Library for the first time in years. It has changed. He remembers it as a "magical, bookish wonderland" (1). He is surprised to see signs about saving the library.

He goes to "the fiction shelves" in search of a book (2). He longs to be told "how something will end" (Adams's italics). He remembers coming here as a boy and how much more he loved the library than his sister, Aleisha. One day he saw an elderly person tucking scraps into books.

After reading for a while, he stands to leave. A scrap falls out of his book. It is a reading list, including the titles To Kill a Mockingbird, Rebecca, The Kite Runner, Life of Pi, Pride and Prejudice, Little Women, Beloved, and A Suitable Boy. He wonders who it belongs to and...