Nina George - The Little Paris Bookshop

Monsieur Perdu can prescribe the perfect book for a broken heart. But can he fix his own?
Monsieur Perdu calls himself a literary apothecary. From his floating bookstore in a barge on the Seine, he prescribes novels for the hardships of life. Using his intuitive feel for the exact book a reader needs, Perdu mends broken hearts and souls. The only person he can't seem to heal through literature is himself; he's still haunted by heartbreak after his great love disappeared. She left him with only a letter, which he has never opened.
After Perdu is finally tempted to read the letter, he hauls anchor and departs on a mission to the south of France, hoping to make peace with his loss and discover the end of the story. Joined by a bestselling but blocked author and a lovelorn Italian chef, Perdu travels along the country’s rivers, dispensing his wisdom and his books, showing that the literary world can take the human soul on a journey to heal itself.
Internationally bestselling and filled with warmth and adventure, The Little Paris Bookshop is a love letter to books, meant for anyone who believes in the power of stories to shape people's lives.

Comment: This book was in my radar when it was published in Portuguese (appealing cover) but some opinions at the time didn't seem as enthusiastic as the premise, the title and the cover seem to indicate. Therefore, I didn't give it much preference but last time I went to the library, there it was and that is why I decided to give it a go anyway.

In this book we meet Jean Perdu, a bookseller who has a shop in a boat on the Seine. He calls it the pharmacy of books because he has a special ability to prescribe the right books to the right people, even if they sometimes think they want something else.

This ability, though, hides a very hurt man, who hasn't been able to overcome a terrible loss decades ago. One day though, when he decides to give away a table in his house to a neighbor in need, that neighbor discovers a letter in one of the drawers. When he does read the letter, all these years after, he realizes he has made a huge mistake and decides to embark on a journey to try to make amends.

On the way he collects friends, experiences and the need to let go of the past to finally heal himself...

Like many other readers who do like books about books or where books are going to be discussed, the idea of this novel was quite promising. A story about a man who knows which books to recommend or that will make more sense to a reader isn't completely new in this genre but it's still as fascinating as ever, especially for dedicated life readers (like I consider myself to be).

I think this is a wonderful idea but to accomplish that is certainly the tricky part.

To me, the biggest obstacle here that didn't allow me to appreciate the story more is the writing style. I think it was aimed to be a mix of casual and erudite, pointing out the more dreamlike and almost magical issues surrounding the characters than being objective in what was happening.

This style of telling a story, as if events and situations were all part of an intricate but weird dimension which people should guess or simply feel in a very unrealistic way can be a little disappointing. I say this because the purpose is more centered on what one can sense as magical or special (whatever that might mean) than in a linear narrative.

This said, the story isn't hard to follow but there are sections/moments where events take quite a turn, entering quite a state where all the characters seem to suffer about something but time and really particular situations are explained by an emotional connection, or an idea... I don't think this scattered style can be easily enjoyed by everyone.

Nevertheless, the story can be quite emotional and some of the situations can really be touching.

Jean, the main character, is in a very difficult point in his life. He has lost hope, he is still hurting after the woman he loved left, decades after that event. the letter a neighbor discovers makes him understand why that woman left and he feels he has wasted too much time mourning a situation he couldn't control so he decides to travel to where that woman went, so he can find closure.

Along the way he lives through several adventures and finds people that make him realize some things about himself and the whole situation.

The story is cute and emotional but I must confess I was still able to keep the distance from what was going on. I think the writing style is good but not always as accessible as it could.

Portuguese cover

There are great elements to enjoy in this story, yes, but others aren't as good. I got the feeling the

main subject of this book (Jean's need to remember his past love with some closure) was made to be a little more heart wrenching than what it deserved and to be honest, some things made me feel a little displeased, such as how condescending and slow Jean was towards what he saw as a love betrayal but which he should have moved on from a long time ago. I think there's this whole aura of sentimentality, so often associated to a french style of living and experiencing things but that can be quite overrated.

Had this book been about a man in Paris who sold books based on his notion of what suits whom and were he to find love again somehow, I think this simplicity would be much more appealing and he could name and suggest many known authors (as he does) without the weird adventures and sections where there's a message not always obvious to find.

I think many readers looked for that.

So, although this was not a bad story, it had too many eccentric elements to be the kind of story one would re-read often. It's also difficult to label it and to explain why it works.

Therefore, for me it stays half way. It was nice to read, I liked the several literary references but I don't feel bad this is a library book I need to return.

Grade: 6/10