The Library of Leaving

‘Maybe it shouldn’t surprise me that August became a writer. He’d told me all kinds of stories – ‘I love you’ for one …’

‘Maybe it shouldn’t surprise me that August became a writer. He’d told me all kinds of stories – ‘I love you’ for one …’

Switzerland, 1926. Helen Fox lives a secluded life at the American Library of Geneva, passing her days cataloguing books left as bequests and combing through their pages to glean details about their deceased owners. It’s a quiet existence, but it’s work she loves.

That is, until Helen receives a mysterious package containing the first chapter of a novel written by August Hegland – an ex-soldier turned writer and the man she once loved. Though he claims his new book is fiction, Helen immediately recognises herself in his story … along with the threat simmering in the ink: that August may expose the truth of her colourful wartime past. But just how much does August intend to reveal? And what will happen to Helen if the answer is everything?

The Library of Leaving is a gripping historical mystery, a sweeping story of love and betrayal, and a poignant meditation on how the stories we tell can reveal – or rewrite – the truth of a life.