The Red Notebook

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, 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 an assortment of items, the kind that tend to collect in a woman’s handbag, but no phone and no wallet. 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.