[A series where we talk about what we have recently read. Owning a bookshop did not materially change who we are as readers, although it did give us easy access to a vast horde of wonderful books. After the first year spent focusing on the bookshop, we are now back to buying books for our personal shelves much as we used to earlier. Reading for us has always been about pleasure - we do not feel compelled to finish a book that does not work for us, or to read certain books because we feel we "should". We read what we want to.:) ]
What Shilpa read: The House in Paris, by Elizabeth Bowen
When this book arrived at the store, one of the copies had a mildly faded back cover. It was barely noticeable, but our store manager was not happy. To rescue the book from a return, I decided to buy it myself. I hadn't read Elizabeth Bowen before and this was the perfect excuse.
The House in Paris was published in 1937. It’s a strange and atmospheric tale that takes place, primarily, during a single day in Paris. The novel is divided into three sections - The Present, The Past, and The Present. We begin with the two child protagonists - Henrietta, eleven years old, who is in Paris only for a day before she must take an evening train to her grandmother's place in rural France, and Leopold, nine, who lives with his adoptive parents in Italy and is in Paris for a momentous rendezvous – his birth mother, Karen Forrestier, whom he has never known, is traveling to Paris to meet him.
Both children are temporarily in the care of Naomi Fisher, a woman with a kind but nervous disposition, well known to their families. They are at Naomi’s house in Paris, where she lives with her unwell, but domineering mother, Mme Fisher (the dying matriarch is a sinister presence throughout). Henrietta finds Leopold strange for a boy his age, and he is - with his intensity, and his expectations of what his mother will say to him when she walks in.
But at the appointed time in the afternoon, a telegram arrives – his mother is unable to come. The second section of the novel ("The Past"), is an imagined account of what Karen might have shared with Leopold, had she arrived as promised. Section Three brings us back to the present and to the two children. To Leopold, dealing with his bitter disappointment, and Henrietta, who as she leaves to catch her train, holds within her, the weighty secrets of the various people connected to the strange Fisher house.
Atmospheric and compelling. Was a bit slow going at first, for me, but then drew me in completely.
What Sapna read: The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain
Laurent Letellier is a bookseller. He runs a bookshop called Le Cahier Rouge, which could be loosely translated as The Red Notebook. He has a daughter, an ex-wife, a girlfriend, a best friend that he isn’t quite sure deserves that status anymore, and a life that, while not humdrum, is routine. He goes through his routine one morning, not expecting anything out of the ordinary, when he finds a woman’s handbag, an expensive looking one, sitting on top of a garbage bin.
The bag is in too good a condition to have been thrown away. He opens it and finds that it has assortment of items, the kind that tend to collect in a woman’s handbag, but no phone and no wallet. So, clearly, someone took the phone and the wallet and tossed the bag aside. Laurent takes the bag home, hoping to find something in it that might give him a clue about the owner so he can return it. There is a bottle of perfume, lipstick, a set of keys, photographs, a book signed by its famous author, and a notebook in which the owner of the bag has scribbled thoughts and opinions, seemingly in passing.
He glances through the notebook and starts to read. He finds himself charmed by the person who penned those thoughts. She seems like someone he would very much like to meet.
This proves to be difficult, but he persists. A good half of the book is about his quest, about the way he puts all the clues together and figures out who the owner of the handbag is. The story of Laurent’s search is interspersed with glimpses into the woman’s life and what is going on with her as Laurent tries to track her down. Obviously, he succeeds. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to mention that, but how it all happens makes for interesting reading.
This is a story about two very likeable, if somewhat lonely people, who end up finding each other. It’s a simple but engaging tale, the characters are well drawn and the story is interesting, and not entirely predictable. Like most of Antoine Laurain’s work, this is a charming tale, well worth a read.
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