The Book Eaters

Dean’s outstanding debut introduces a unique world featuring a clan of book eaters, people for whom books are food. Devon Fairweather, a female book eater, has been treated as a princess and is fed a carefully curated diet of fairy tales so that she fulfills her duty—to ensure the continuity of The Family by producing two children with two different fathers. When her son, Cai, is born, not as a book eater, but as a mind eater, she goes on the run to save him from a ghastly fate. Despite almost immediately experiencing the horrors Devon will visit upon humankind to protect her child, it is hard not to root for her, as her love feels so strong and pure. Katie Erich narrates Devon with the voice of a true storyteller, providing a mesmerizing performance that communicates the devastating harshness and rich emotionality of Devon’s journey. Erich’s calm tone is pleasantly grounded in a story that could be too dark, complex, or morally gray for some.