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Удивительная книга. Как никогда актуальна сегодня. Язык и стиль автора настолько тонок, лёгок и изыскан, что легко поведёт читателя в мир героев, кото...
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The Delegates’ Choice
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Год написания книги
2019
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‘Aye.’
‘Wasn’t bad?’
‘Yer right.’
‘No, it wasn’t bad! It was terrible!’
‘Ach,’ said Ted, picking a date out of his scone.
‘You’re just inured to it, Ted.’
‘Ee-what?’
‘Inured. It’s…Anyway, I’m young and you’re…’
‘What?’
‘Older.’
‘Aye.’
‘And look at us! We’re nothing more than errand boys!’
‘I don’t know about that,’ said Ted.
‘I’ve got a degree from Oxford you know,’ said Israel.
‘Uh-huh,’ said Ted, picking at his scone. ‘Oxford Brookes, wasn’t it you said?’
‘Which is in Oxford,’ said Israel. ‘I don’t know if you’ve been there?’
‘Can’t say I have,’ said Ted. ‘No.’
‘No!’ said Israel triumphantly. ‘Well then. I am a highly educated librarian. I shouldn’t be—we shouldn’t be—just doing errands for people.’
‘We’re not just doing errands for people.’
‘Yes, we are!’
‘We’re a service,’ said Ted.
‘A library service,’ said Israel. ‘A library service. Not a Tesco home delivery service! Picking up people’s groceries is not the kind of service I had in mind when I got into this job,’ said Israel. ‘It’s ridiculous.’
‘It’s not ridiculous.’
‘It is!’ said Israel. ‘Honestly. This morning…’
First stop of the day, up round the coast, and first in, a man in his seventies, not one of their regulars.
‘D’ye have the Impartial Recorder?’
‘Sorry?’ said Israel.
‘The paper? D’ye have the paper?’
‘No. No. I’m afraid not.’
‘The Tele then?’
‘No. Sorry. We don’t have any papers.’
‘You don’t sell any papers?’
‘No. Sorry.’
‘You sell books then?’
‘No, no, we don’t sell books either.’
‘D’ye not?’
‘No.’
‘Why not?’
‘We’re a library.’
‘Ach, aye. Second-hand books then.’
‘Erm…Well, yes. Sort of, I suppose.’
‘By the yard, or by the pound?’
‘Sorry?’
‘I saw a thing about it on the telly once. Books by the yard. Or the dozen. I don’t know. I can’t rightly remember.’
‘Right. Well, we don’t actually sell books here at all. You have to join a library. Like you do a video shop or…something. I need to see a utility bill, something with your name and address on it, and then I can—’
‘I’d not be showing you that, indeed; that’d be under the Freedom of Information Act, wouldn’t it? I don’t know who ye are. Are ye the police?’
‘No. I’m not the police.’
‘You could be anybody.’
‘Yes, true. I could, of course, be…anybody. I am in fact the librarian though. Here. In the…mobile library. Where we…are.’
‘You’re a funny-lookin’ librarian.’
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Удивительная книга. Как никогда актуальна сегодня. Язык и стиль автора настолько тонок, лёгок и изыскан, что легко поведёт читателя в мир героев, кото...
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