{"product_id":"9780688168247","title":"The Book Borrower: A Novel - Mattison, Alice","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cu\u003eThe Book Borrower: A Novel\u003c\/u\u003e by Mattison, Alice\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFormat: Hardcover with Dust Jacket\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished by William Morrow \u0026amp; Co, 1999\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOn the first page of The Book Borrower, Toby Ruben and Deborah Laidlaw meet in 1975 in a city playground, where they are looking after their babies, and Deborah lends Toby a book, Trolley Girl, that will appear, disappear, and return throughout the years in which these women are friends. The book is a memoir about a long-ago trolley strike and three Jewish sisters, one a fiery revolutionary.\u003cbr\u003eToby and Deborah raise their toddlers in the seventies while arguing over Patty Hearst and the meaning of life. They find work teaching inner-city daycare workers, a job that leads to conflict between them. Meanwhile, Toby reads the opening chapters of Trolley Girl with interest but puts the book aside when its story turns tragic.\u003cbr\u003eTen years later we find Toby and Deborah as adjunct English instructors at a local college.\u003cbr\u003eAnother decade passes. Toby and Deborah spend a November afternoon hiking down a trail in the park where they met long ago and arguing, as usual, about teaching, about their college-age children, about recent strife in Rwanda. But this time the argument cannot be resolved. It is ultimately the borrowed Trolley Girl, which reemerges from Toby's dusty bookshelf, that brings solace and consolation to Toby.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003csmall\u003eProduct image is for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product offered for sale.\u003c\/small\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"William Morrow \u0026 Co, 1999","offers":[{"title":"The Book Borrower: A Novel \/ Very Good","offer_id":52634186809636,"sku":"9780688168247VG","price":8.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/9951\/4148\/files\/public_ad9af9b2-5717-4235-9fd1-8ed31a3d9c7f.jpg?v=1781792513","url":"https:\/\/brookingsbooks.com\/products\/9780688168247","provider":"Brookings Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}