Last Night in Montreal
(Libby/OverDrive eAudiobook)

This taut, gripping debut novel explores the lives of four people who are forever changed when a father takes his seven-year-old daughter from his estranged ex-wife. Now 22, Lilia has never been able to stop running; she moves from city to city, often leaving a lover behind. Her latest lover, Eli, an aimless graduate student working on a PhD he's not sure he'll ever finish, is unmoored by her abandonment until he receives a letter from a young woman in Montreal named Michaela telling him she knows where Lilia is. The same age as Lilia, Michaela is the daughter of Christopher Graydon, the private detective who trailed Lilia and her father relentlessly. When Eli arrives in Montreal, he finds Michaela won't tell him where Lilia is until he shares with her Lilia's secret: the truth behind the accident that crippled Christopher. The lost souls in this elegantly compelling novel are ciphers to themselves as much as they are to others, and they will stay in readers' minds long after the final page is turned.--Huntley, Kristine Copyright 2009 Booklist

A young woman with a habit of running away runs away yet again in Mandel's competent if unremarkable debut. As Eli finishes another grim day of work on his thesis (its topic: dead and dying languages) in his Brooklyn apartment, he realizes his girlfriend, Lilia, never returned after going out for the newspaper that morning. About a month later, Eli gets a postcard from someone named Michaela in Montreal telling him that Lilia is there, so he heads north, leaving (thankfully) his insufferable friends behind to natter on about art without him. His quest is interspersed with flashbacks to Lilia's childhood: her father kidnaps her at age seven from her mother's house, and the two go on the lam. Back in present-day Montreal, Eli meets Michaela, who happens to be the daughter of the detective who years ago worked on Lilia's abduction case, and together they try to fill in the blanks of Lilia's past. While the plot is interesting enough, the prose often feels forced and the characters sometimes amount to accumulations of quirks, whimsies and neuroses. An intriguing idea, but the delivery isn't quite there. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

When Lilia Albert is seven, the father she has not seen in more than a year suddenly appears in the middle of the night and steals her away from her rural Canadian home. She is never again seen by her mother or brother. Instead, her independently wealthy dad moves her from one U.S. city to another, along the way educating her in matters both practical and not. Is he a spurned ex-husband who refuses to accept the court's custody decision? Or is he Lilia's savior, taking her away from something awful? When the novel opens, Lilia is a twentysomething Brooklyn dishwasher living with a disgruntled grad student named Eli Jacobs. When Lilia unceremoniously leaves him-a pattern she's perfected-Eli is bereft. As he obsessively searches for her, the story integrates the viewpoints of private investigator Christopher Graydon and Graydon's neglected daughter, Michaela, who has long resented Lilia's looming presence in her family's life. While the plot is occasionally contrived, the fast pacing and unusual characters make this a compelling first novel. Highly recommended for all contemporary fiction collections.-Eleanor J. Bader, Brooklyn, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

"This taut, gripping debut novel explores the lives of four people who are forever changed when a father takes his seven-year-old daughter from his estranged ex-wife. Now 22, Lilia has never been able to stop running; she moves from city to city, often leaving a lover behind. Her latest lover, Eli, an aimless graduate student working on a PhD he's not sure he'll ever finish, is unmoored by her abandonment until he receives a letter from a young woman in Montreal named Michaela telling him she knows where Lilia is. The same age as Lilia, Michaela is the daughter of Christopher Graydon, the private detective who trailed Lilia and her father relentlessly. When Eli arrives in Montreal, he finds Michaela won't tell him where Lilia is until he shares with her Lilia's secret: the truth behind the accident that crippled Christopher. The lost souls in this elegantly compelling novel are ciphers to themselves as much as they are to others, and they will stay in readers' minds long after the final page is turned." Copyright 2009 Booklist Reviews.

When Lilia Albert is seven, the father she has not seen in more than a year suddenly appears in the middle of the night and steals her away from her rural Canadian home. She is never again seen by her mother or brother. Instead, her independently wealthy dad moves her from one U.S. city to another, along the way educating her in matters both practical and not. Is he a spurned ex-husband who refuses to accept the court's custody decision? Or is he Lilia's savior, taking her away from something awful? When the novel opens, Lilia is a twentysomething Brooklyn dishwasher living with a disgruntled grad student named Eli Jacobs. When Lilia unceremoniously leaves him—a pattern she's perfected—Eli is bereft. As he obsessively searches for her, the story integrates the viewpoints of private investigator Christopher Graydon and Graydon's neglected daughter, Michaela, who has long resented Lilia's looming presence in her family's life. While the plot is occasionally contrived, the fast pacing and unusual characters make this a compelling first novel. Highly recommended for all contemporary fiction collections.—Eleanor J. Bader, Brooklyn, NY

A young woman with a habit of running away runs away yet again in Mandel's competent if unremarkable debut. As Eli finishes another grim day of work on his thesis (its topic: dead and dying languages) in his Brooklyn apartment, he realizes his girlfriend, Lilia, never returned after going out for the newspaper that morning. About a month later, Eli gets a postcard from someone named Michaela in Montreal telling him that Lilia is there, so he heads north, leaving (thankfully) his insufferable friends behind to natter on about art without him. His quest is interspersed with flashbacks to Lilia's childhood: her father kidnaps her at age seven from her mother's house, and the two go on the lam. Back in present-day Montreal, Eli meets Michaela, who happens to be the daughter of the detective who years ago worked on Lilia's abduction case, and together they try to fill in the blanks of Lilia's past. While the plot is interesting enough, the prose often feels forced and the characters sometimes amount to accumulations of quirks, whimsies and neuroses. An intriguing idea, but the delivery isn't quite there. (June)