The Lost Bookshop

The Lost Bookshop is my favorite book of 2023.

Martha searched for truth and healing in the present while Opaline searched for strength and direction in the past. Both women found more questions than answers in old bookstores and back alleys across Europe, while overshadowed by specters from their pasts.

The author wove Irish, English and French history together into a sparkling story with characters that I'd expect to meet living and breathing, here and now. A little magical realism was sprinkled across the second half, but I was so riveted by the mysterious breadcrumbs as the adventure picked up pace that I wasn't taken out of the story.

Martha and Opaline almost lost hold of their dreams and sanity as they weathered their own storms. Each found their footing in unexpected ways. The literary easter eggs also added to the richness of the characters and story.

What an exciting and fun read! I was actually sad when I finished this book.

Books with similar vibes: The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow, The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner, The London Séance Society by Sarah Penner, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

3,5/5⭐️
Leuk boek met een ontzettend leuk concept. Fijn dat er 3 wisselende POV's zijn en dat vanuit alle 3 wil weten hoe alles in elkaar zit.

(Wel jammer dat je aan het einde nog steeds niet precies weet hoe de bookshop niet te zien is voor iedereen.
Het wordt wel deels uitgelegd aan het einde, maar hoe komt het dan dat andere mensen er wel binnen zijn geweest??)

There is a bookshop on a street in Dublin. Or so Henry has been told. He thinks he saw it on his first night in town. But did he? And where is it now?

Martha is running away from an abusive husband. She finds refuge in working as a housekeeper to an eccentric old woman. She meets Henry and he shares his quest to find a missing bookshop and to locate a missing Emily Bronte manuscript. Can Martha dare to reveal her secrets to Henry?

Opaline leaves London to flee an arranged marriage in the 1920s. She eventually makes her way to Dublin to run a thrift shop.

The Lost Bookshop weaves the stories of these three characters together, and draws in the stories of the Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris, rare book dealers, and reclusive authors who may have hidden away a second book no one is aware of. There are also mysterious tattoos and the appearance of books on a shelf made from a tree that forms in a house and the lost bookshop itself.