The Librarian of Burned Books: A Novel

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 10

Chapters 11-21

Chapters 22-34

Chapters 35-43

Chapter 44-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Fire

Fire is at the heart of The Librarian of Burned Books, with its relevance being alluded to directly in the title. It is most often used as a symbol of literal and figurative destruction. The first hint of this is early in Althea’s story, when she first arrives in Germany and encounters a mob celebrating Hitler’s rise to power: “Althea saw the torchlight first. She froze, paralyzed, unsure if this was an unruly mob or an organized celebration” (48). Although she quickly overcomes her fear and joins the festivities, this moment of ambiguity foreshadows the duality and uncertainty she struggles with throughout the novel. Later, this motif appears when the resistance meeting is broken up by the announcement, “The Reichstag is on fire” (153). Here, the flames become a symbol of dissolution and fear.

Later in the story, fire plays a very central and violent role at the cataclysmic book burnings, a call to action led by Joseph Goebbels. Although it is a source of literal destruction, it also acts on a metaphorical level as the destroyer of enlightenment, community, and hope. Althea, as one whose identity is intrinsically tied up with books, takes the event particularly hard. The novel conveys the magnitude of the atrocity by saying, “It was not just a few books, not just a symbolic fire. There were thousands upon thousands upon thousands of books being tossed into the flames. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people cheered and howled and threw up the Nazi salute. They chanted, ‘We are the fire, we are the flame; we burn before Germany’s altars’” (267-268). This echoes an earlier moment where Hannah observed this capacity for chaos in her friend Otto: “Here was that fire, so beautiful and yet so deadly” (139).

Later, however, Althea turns this same capacity for chaos into renewal and strength: “But something had bloomed within her last night. A power she had never known she had caught fire, and the flames burned away the fear that she had been coming to believe was one of her foundation stones” (310). Here, the novel examines the duality of fire: a symbol of both light and darkness, creation and destruction.

Alice in Wonderland

While several works of classic literature are mentioned directly by name, Alice in Wonderland becomes a repeated motif and is directly quoted on two occasions. Its first appearance is when Althea first arrives in Berlin with her beloved copy “of Alice in Wonderland, one that she’d brought along as a safety blanket, the parallels between herself and a disoriented and dazzled Alice dropped into Wonderland too strong not to find comforting” (19). This particular copy she gives away, forging a moment of connection with a local bookseller. She replaces it with a new edition, which she reads aloud to Hannah.

Later, Althea rescues a faceless book from the brink of the Nazi fire and discovers that it’s also Alice in Wonderland. In some ways, this moment represents her final rupture from the loyalty she felt to her Nazi hosts. She comes to see the book as an extension of her inner morality and strength: “But had she had to watch it burn, she thought she would have lost part of herself that she would never have been able to get back” (338).

This book (the third copy Althea has owned within the novel) ultimately finds its way to Hannah and acts as a lingering connection that binds the two of them together. Althea inscribes it with the second direct quotation, succinctly summarizing both Alice’s journey and her own: “I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then” (340).

Althea’s Novels

Among the real-world novels mentioned throughout the text are two prominent fictional novels written by Althea: The Unfractured Light and An Inconceivable Dark. In their parallel titles, their voice, and their content, they are direct inversions of each other. This is explored most overtly through Viv’s treasure hunt as she tries to learn more about Althea. While both novels are released to critical acclaim, there are subtle differences that mark Althea’s growth. In her debut, “Viv could find only one review that was anything but glowing, mentioning a pat ending that felt too easy” (190). In contrast, her sophomore novel particularly impresses reviewers with “the way her characters were all morally gray rather than having the stark ethics that were at play in The Light” (190).

There are also hints that these novels communicate the trajectory of her professional career. After the release of her first novel, Althea is something of a curiosity: “They made sure to mention in that same tone that Althea had no formal education, as if she were some special dog who could ride a bicycle, and there were several velvet-covered barbs about her ability despite the fact that she was a woman. Her editor, a man who had discovered her through a quirk of fate, also featured heavily” (190). This notoriety of inexperience is what made Althea such an ideal target for the German exchange program. Her later novel features a “rejection of the fairy-tale structure [that] had clearly won over even the most pretentious readers” (191). This shows that by her second novel, she was being taken more seriously as a writer and artist. Combined, these elements illuminate the internal change she undergoes through her experiences in the novel.