His Imaginary Librarian

At ninety years old, Walter Chase lies in a critical care bed he knows he will not leave. He is not afraid. He has someone with him—not a nurse, not a doctor, not even a ghost. She is his imaginary librarian, a quiet and precise figure who has spent his whole life cataloging everything he has ever seen, felt, and loved.

Now, in the long middle hours between morning rounds and evening visits, she retrieves it all for him: his Ohio childhood and the smell of his mother's kitchen; his father's ...