Library patrons and students can read and discuss compelling “The Five Wounds” ebook or audiobook for free

 

CLEVELAND – February 7, 2022 – Over 16,000 public libraries and colleges across the United States are participating in the latest award-winning Together We Read: US digital book club. From February 7 to 21, U.S. public library patrons and students of participating colleges can enjoy author Kirstin Valdez Quade’s 2021 First Novel Prize-winning book, The Five Wounds, as an ebook and audiobook. Readers can access the digital book for free with no waitlists or holds by downloading the Libby reading app, and then participate in an online discussion.

The Together We Read: US digital book club connects readers through thousands of public libraries and colleges with the same ebook for two weeks. Readers need only a valid library card or their student credentials for a participating college to get started. This free program is facilitated by OverDrive, the leading digital reading platform for ebooks, audiobooks and magazines and creator of the award-winning Libby app.

“I am so delighted that The Five Wounds has been selected for OverDrive’s Together We Read: US,” said Kirstin Valdez Quade. “I am an enthusiastic library member, so this honor makes me particularly happy. My greatest hope is that a reader will come to care for my characters and root for them, and perhaps even come to think of the Padillas as members of their own community.”

The Five Wounds takes place during Holy Week in the small town of Las Penas, New Mexico, and thirty-three-year-old unemployed Amadeo Padilla has been given the part of Jesus in the Good Friday procession. He is preparing feverishly for this role when his fifteen-year-old daughter Angel shows up pregnant on his doorstep and disrupts his plans for personal redemption. With weeks to go until her due date, tough, ebullient Angel has fled her mother’s house, setting her life on a startling new path. The Five Wounds spans the baby’s first year as five generations of the Padilla family converge: Amadeo’s mother who’s reeling from a recent discovery; Angel’s mother whom Angel isn’t speaking to; and Yolanda’s uncle and keeper of the family’s history.

The Five Wounds is published as an ebook by W. W. Norton & Company and as an audiobook by HighBridge Audio. The digital book can be borrowed from participating U.S. libraries and colleges during Together We Read between February 7-21. The ebook and audiobook can be read on all major computers and devices, including iPhone®, iPad®, Android™ phones and tablets and Chromebook™ without waitlists or holds. Through Libby, readers can also “send to Kindle®” [U.S. libraries only]. The title will automatically expire at the end of the lending period, and there are no late fees.

Download Libby to get started.

More information about Together We Read: US can be found here.

 

About OverDrive

OverDrive strives to create “a world enlightened by reading.” Serving a growing network of 76,000 libraries and schools in 94 countries, OverDrive delivers the industry’s largest digital catalog of ebooks, audiobooks, magazines and other content through award-winning apps. The Libby reading app for libraries is one of Popular Mechanics’ 20 Best Apps of the Decade, the Sora student reading app is one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2019, and Kanopy is the leading streaming video service for libraries and colleges. Acquired in 2021, TeachingBooks.net offers one of the largest catalogs of supplemental materials that enhance literacy outcomes. Founded in 1986, OverDrive is based in Cleveland, Ohio USA and was named a Certified B Corp in 2017. www.overdrive.com

Contact:

David Burleigh
Director of Brand & Communications
dburleigh@overdrive.com

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