The Librarian of Burned Books: A Novel

After Hannah and Otto leave, Althea goes home and considers her predicament, including what she has lost with Hannah. She finds her rescued copy of Alice in Wonderland and sets it aside as she packs up her things. On her way to the station, she leaves the book outside Hannah’s apartment with an inscription quoted from the story.

Viv wakes the morning of her event. On her way out, she roars out the window, remembering when Edward encouraged her to let her tensions out that way before.

She arrives at the hall, where Taft and his associate Danes are already waiting. Mr. Stern re-introduces them, and Viv goes to greet the other accumulated guests, which include prominent reporters and politicians, publishing house staff, colleagues of Hannah’s from the library, an ASEs author, and Hale.

Hannah deals with her revelation about Otto’s betrayal. She goes to Otto’s home to confront him and considers how much more unstable Otto had become following Adam’s capture. Otto tells her he was given 10,000 in exchange for information on Adam. Hannah feels empathetic to his guilt and fear but is unable to move past the betrayal. She gently ends her friendship with him, telling him that the truth could have spared her years of self-loathing.

Hannah goes home and finally opens Althea’s letters, which tell the story of her then-unpublished second novel. The final, most recent letter contains a visa and a ship’s ticket to America.

Viv tries to calm Althea as she prepares for her speech. She leaves her with a colleague and goes to find Hannah, who is more reticent and composed. When Viv returns to Althea, she tells her about the next speaker: the librarian of banned books. Althea is shocked to recognize Hannah taking the stage.

Althea grapples with seeing Hannah again after so many years. She considers her guilt and her anger towards Hannah’s immediate judgment of her. Hannah begins her speech, talking about the way she watched her home country erode in small, seemingly insignificant ways. She is heartbroken over the world’s perception of Germany, once a place of great artists and thinkers. She talks about the night of the book burnings, and how it silently marked the fall of the country. Finally, she encourages the listeners to make a better choice than their predecessors did.

Viv watches Althea and Hannah greet each other, deducing that they were once in love. She unwillingly interrupts so that Althea can take her turn speaking. Althea talks to the onlookers about her trip to Germany, and how she was once sympathetic to the Nazis through the inexperience of her youth. She voices disdain for the practice of politics, upsetting some of the listeners, and encourages those in attendance to see the ASEs as something bigger than a political game.

By the time she concludes her speech, Hannah is gone. Viv, however, is overjoyed at the effect. In the following days, Taft becomes the victim of a media frenzy, particularly following an overheard quotation about his reluctance to let soldiers vote. The censorship amendment is overturned, and the ASEs continue unhindered. Hale and Viv go out to celebrate and think about the future.

Althea leaves the event on her own and considers her guilt over Adam’s capture, her anger at Hannah, and the fear that has driven her since. She decides to finally forgive both Hannah and herself. Having received Hannah’s address from Viv, Althea braces herself and knocks on Hannah’s door.

Following the event, Hannah runs away out of guilt and shame for her actions. She thinks about her life since she moved to New York, seeing the same prejudices as back home but making new friends in her new job. She compares herself to Otto, who died by suicide several years previously, and who never sought her forgiveness. Suddenly, there is a knock at her front door.

Viv and Hale’s daughter Martha, along with Viv, Hannah, and Althea, are visiting a memorial for the Berlin book burnings. The women are elderly now, but Hannah and Althea are happy and in love, as are Viv and Hale. Martha considers Althea’s successful literary career, which encompassed literary fiction, nonfiction, and children’s books. Hannah persisted in the library of banned books until its closure, then opened a small publishing company. Martha joins Althea and Hannah and asks Althea to tell her a story.