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The Last Chance Library
Cover of The Last Chance Library
The Last Chance Library
A Good Morning America Buzz Pick
A Library Reads Pick
June Jones emerges from her shell to fight for her beloved local library, and through the efforts and support of an eclectic group of library patrons, she discovers life-changing friendships along the way.

 
Lonely librarian June Jones has never left the sleepy English village where she grew up. Shy and reclusive, the thirty-year-old would rather spend her time buried in books than venture out into the world. But when her library is threatened with closure, June is forced to emerge from behind the shelves to save the heart of her community and the place that holds the dearest memories of her mother.
Joining a band of eccentric yet dedicated locals in a campaign to keep the library, June opens herself up to other people for the first time since her mother died. It just so happens that her old school friend Alex Chen is back in town and willing to lend a helping hand. The kindhearted lawyer's feelings for her are obvious to everyone but June, who won't believe that anyone could ever care for her in that way.
To save the place and the books that mean so much to her, June must finally make some changes to her life. For once, she's determined not to go down without a fight. And maybe, in fighting for her cherished library, June can save herself, too.
A Good Morning America Buzz Pick
A Library Reads Pick
June Jones emerges from her shell to fight for her beloved local library, and through the efforts and support of an eclectic group of library patrons, she discovers life-changing friendships along the way.

 
Lonely librarian June Jones has never left the sleepy English village where she grew up. Shy and reclusive, the thirty-year-old would rather spend her time buried in books than venture out into the world. But when her library is threatened with closure, June is forced to emerge from behind the shelves to save the heart of her community and the place that holds the dearest memories of her mother.
Joining a band of eccentric yet dedicated locals in a campaign to keep the library, June opens herself up to other people for the first time since her mother died. It just so happens that her old school friend Alex Chen is back in town and willing to lend a helping hand. The kindhearted lawyer's feelings for her are obvious to everyone but June, who won't believe that anyone could ever care for her in that way.
To save the place and the books that mean so much to her, June must finally make some changes to her life. For once, she's determined not to go down without a fight. And maybe, in fighting for her cherished library, June can save herself, too.
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  • From the cover

    CHAPTER ONE

    You can tell a lot about a person from the library books they borrow.

    June liked to play a game when things were quiet at work. She'd pick a patron and make up their life story based on the books they read. Today she'd chosen a middle-aged lady who took out two Danielle Steel novels and The Rough Guide to Iceland. After some consideration, June decided that the woman was trapped in a loveless marriage, perhaps with a boorish, aggressive husband. She was planning to run away to Reykjav’k, where she'd fall in love with a rugged, bearded local. But just as she thought she'd found true happiness, her husband would track her down and announce-

    "Well, that was a pile of shit."

    June was snapped out of her daydream by Mrs. Bransworth, who was standing in front of the desk waving a book in her face. It was Kazuo Ishiguro's Remains of the Day.

    "What a pointless load of rubbish. Masters and servants? Capitalist propaganda more like. I could write better than this."

    Mrs. B came into the library several times a week, wearing an ancient Afghan coat and fingerless gloves, even in the height of summer. She chose her books seemingly at random; one day it would be a manual on plumbing, the next a volume by a Nobel Prize-winning author. But whatever she borrowed, it always had the same outcome.

    "I'm thinking of handing my library card back in protest."

    "I'm sorry, Mrs. Bransworth. You can have first pick of the new stock if you like?"

    "Probably all crap," Mrs. B said, and she stormed off toward the Sports shelf, leaving a faint smell of wet goat lingering at the desk.

    June finished loading up the ancient returns trolley and began to navigate it around the room. Chalcot Library occupied what had once been the village school, a drafty redbrick building erected in the 1870s. It had been converted into a library eighty years later but had retained many of its original features, including a slate roof that leaked in heavy rain, floorboards that creaked underfoot, and a family of persistent mice who were eating their way through the boxes of archives stored in the loft. The council had last redecorated the library sometime in the nineties, with strip lighting and institutional green carpet. But June still liked to imagine what it must have been like in its earliest incarnation, when grubby-faced children sat in rows of desks where the shelves now stood, learning to write their letters on dusty slates like a scene from Jane Eyre.

    As she pushed the trolley toward the front of the room, June saw her boss marching toward her, a copy of Mrs. Dalloway poking out of her handbag.

    "I need to see you in my office. Now."

    Marjorie Spencer was the library manager, a title she wore pinned to her blouse like a war medal. She claimed to only read highbrow literary novels, but June knew she'd renewed Fifty Shades of Grey at least three times.

    June followed her boss into the office. It was actually a stock cupboard-cum-staff room, but Marjorie had put in a desk years ago and had even hung a name plaque on the door. There was no space for any other chairs, so June perched on a stack of printer paper.

    "This is strictly entre nous, but I've just had a call from the council," Marjorie said, fiddling with the string of pearls around her neck. "They want me to go in on Monday for an urgent meeting. In the boardroom." She paused to check that June was suitably impressed with this information. "You'll have to manage on your own while I'm gone."

    "Okay, that's fine."

    "It's too short notice...

About the Author-
  • Freya Sampson works in television as a creator and Executive Producer. Her credits include two documentary series for the BBC about the British Royal Family, and a number of factual and entertainment series. She studied History at Cambridge University and in 2018 was shortlisted for the Exeter Novel Prize. She lives in London with her husband, two young children and an antisocial cat. The Last Chance Library is her debut novel.
Reviews-
  • Publisher's Weekly

    August 2, 2021
    The prospect of a British library’s closure sets in motion the awakening of a shy woman in Sampson’s winsome debut. Library assistant June Jones, 28, has worked for 10 years at the Chalcot library and has never left the village. She had once dreamed of going to university and becoming a writer, but ever since her single mother, a librarian, died of cancer almost eight years earlier, June has shut herself among the books. When the county council proposes closing the library due to budget cuts, the regular patrons protest in hopes of keeping it open. There’s Mrs. Barnsworth, who leaves the smell of wet goat in her wake and hates every book she reads; Stanley Phelps, a tweed-wearing reader of WWII novels; and romance-lover Linda. Initially, June is more concerned for her job, but when Stanley proposes the group occupy the library, June joins in and their action goes viral. They’re joined by Alex Chen, an old school friend of June’s who takes an interest in her and further brightens her spirits. While the simple prose is an initial roadblock, Sampson convincingly brings her characters to life, as well as the importance of their collective crusade to save the library. Readers will be touched by June’s transformation.

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The Last Chance Library
Freya Sampson
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