A book that was borrowed from Nerja’s library over 50 years ago has finally been returned to its rightful owner. The retired man, who wanted to remain anonymous, returned the book to councillor José Miguel Jimena (pictured) after “the guilt of seeing the book on his bookshelf every day became too much”, according to the councillor.

The book “El lenguaje, introducción lingüística a la Historia” (Language, a linguistic introduction to history) by J. Vendreys was taken out from the Salvador Rueda public library on the 25th of May 1961. Since then it has been at the house of the person who borrowed the book, first in Nerja and then in Málaga where he currently lives.

Finally a few days ago the guilty party returned the book to the councillor, whom he had known for a number of years, so that the book could be returned to the town’s library. One of the current employees at the library, Adela Armijo, has said that the longest that anyone has taken to return a book until now has been “at most four or five years”. In Nerja there are no fines for late return of a book, instead the user gets a temporary ban as a punishment. It is not known how many years ban this late return will earn.

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