On the morning of 29 April 1986, someone set fire to the Los Angeles Public Library, ultimately destroying or damaging more than half a million books. In re-examining the unsolved mystery of one of the most catastrophic library fires in history, Susan Orlean’s The Library Book delivers a dazzling love letter to a beloved institution, and addresses the ways libraries are the centre of the reader's universe. The author of The Orchid Thief (which was turned into the film Adaptation, in which Susan was played by Meryl Streep) talks with with Jennifer Byrne.