The Lost Bookshop
The Echo of Old Books meets The Lost Apothecary in this evocative and charming novel full of mystery and secrets.
‘The thing about books,’ she said ‘is that they help you to imagine a life bigger and better than you could ever dream of.’
On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found…
For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives.
But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder… where nothing is as it seems.
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Jenn Thornley –
From the Book Club Host (Jill Doyle):
The Lost Bookshop, we agreed, was not quite what we expected from the blurb. Yes, we anticipated a tale of a lost bookshop, but wasn’t expecting one that appeared and disappeared depending on the person seeking it, and their reasons for doing so. That those individuals were linked by way of a search for a missing manuscript, an unknown DNA link and good old fashioned romance, made it even more fantastical at times than it already was. But, those are things that need to be discovered and pieced together by would-be readers, as to give the game away would certainly spoil things here.
The book itself, by following several storylines, also jumped back and forth between dual timelines. One is set in 1920’s Paris and Dublin with Opaline the owner of the bookshop. The other picks up Martha’s story, and she is the modern day incumbent of the basement flat of the house where the bookshop should be. She is working for the mysterious, flamboyant Madam Bowman. Who gave rise to much debate!
Both Opaline and Martha are linked by the need to escape, the former from a brother intent on seeking to marry her off to benefit the family and the latter from an abusive husband. Along the way, both face personal heartache and trauma. It was this aspect of the book that wasn’t really expected as it featured some hard hitting topics, alcoholism, depression, domestic abuse, coercion, enforced imprisonment, the asylum system, kidnapping and child loss for starters. Also unexpected was the level of magic realism that pervaded the book, not always successfully we felt. While the drama of the women’s lives was gripping, the ‘magical’ elements at times, caused distraction and confusion.
It was a book that certainly gave rise to a lively discussion and on the whole we liked it more than we disliked it, but it fell short of what we thought it was going to be. In our opinion it wasn’t the resoundingly charming and uplifting book promised by the blurb.
Our score 3.25 out of 5