A tale about the transformation of the life of single young book-lover Juliette. A short novel translated from French of 197 pages (wide margins).
Juliette lives a safe life of everyday predictability working in an estate agents. Her first love is reading and observing other readers on the Paris Metro. She meets an eccentric bookseller, Soliman, at his run down premises and becomes attached to him and his unusual mission to pass suitable books to observed strangers.
The story does not dwell to much on practicalities as it is essentially a fantasy. Some of the odd incidents and descriptions though seem a bit clunky and “dropped in” to the narrative. Relationships are sketched and developments just seem to happen as given.
However, this is an encomium to books, reading, literature and fellow feeling. It speaks of the human effect they can have as revelatory and life changing. The progress of the story is charming and touching, the characters sympathetic. Overall, It is a nice dream with an “if only” quality.
The author has written many children’s books and this has a certain innocence and informative quality about early adult life regarding self-education and development. A worthy and likeable tale.
Mark's Reviews 