In the 22nd century, Ern A. Smithe is a "reclone" of a mystery writer, embedded with the recorded memories of his original and stored in a library where patrons can consult or borrow him.

At Strange Horizons, John Clute stated that it was "almost (...) the saddest story I have ever heard", and "not (...) quite the most adamantly terminal novel Gene Wolfe has ever written", noting that its many apparent stylistic flaws are deliberate (for instance, Smithe's narration is in the style of a hardboiled mystery because, as a reclone, his speech production has been artificially constrained).

[3] Publishers Weekly called it "a strange, unsettling story, deceptively simple and old-fashioned in style and plot".

[5] Tor.com's Niall Alexander however, felt it to be "middling", with a "morally abhorrent" setting and "too much (...) meandering misdirection", and "the most fascinating thing" being Smithe's narrative voice.

[6] In 2015, Wolfe announced that he was writing a sequel to A Borrowed Man, to be titled Interlibrary Loan, but he specified that he "[hadn't] finished it yet, and it may not be published".