Reading between the lines of a lonely and loveless life

The Library of Unrequited Love, Sophie Divry (translated by Sián Reynolds), Maclehose Press, £6.99; Kindle, £2.57

One morning, in a small town outside Paris, a librarian arrives a little early for work and discovers a man sleeping in the basement. Instead of releasing him, she holds him captive until the library’s official opening time, hiding behind the rules, because to behave otherwise would be unprecedented.

The story on offer here has less to do with plot than portrait. Nothing at all is revealed about the stowaway and his reasons for being here, because this is not his story. Instead we get a glimpse behind the façade of a middle-aged spinster, a low-ranking employee who does her duty hidden away in the building’s depths, the uninspiring geography section, and is grudgingly tolerated as an eccentric by the chain of command.