The Little Paris Bookshop

For The Love Of Books

The idea of Nina George’s The Little Paris Bookshop (translated by Simon Pare from the original German Das Lavendelzimmer) is magical, the book not so much. How the reader takes the sentimental story of loss, grief and rediscovery of love depends on his/her temperament and current frame of mind;  the international bestseller could enchant just as much as it could annoy.

The protagonist is a sad, buttoned-up man called Jean Perdu, who had lost the love of his life, Manon, some twenty years ago, and has shut himself off emotionally since.  He runs a bookshop in a barge on the Seine, and calls it the Literary Apothecary, because he believes he can solve people’s problems by ‘prescribing’ the right book for them to read.

As he explains in the book, “ "I wanted to treat feelings that are not recognized as afflictions and are never diagnosed by doctors. All those little feelings and emotions no therapist is interested in, because they are apparently too minor and intangible. The feeling that washes over you when another summer nears its end Or when you recognize that you haven't got your whole life left to find out where you belong. Or the slight sense of grief when a friendship doesn't develop as you thought, and you have to continue your search for a lifelong companion. Or those birthday morning blues. Nostalgia for the air of your childhood. Things like that." 

His placid life is turned upside down when a new neighbor, Catherine, with traumas of her own, discovers an unopened letter in a table he gave her (because she has no furniture, only “shattered illusions”). Reading the letter leads him to lifting anchor and setting off on a journey down the river, accompanied by his two cats (Kafka and Lindgren) and a successful young writer Max Jordan, who wants to escape crazy female fans (really!) and seek inspiration for a new book.  At the back of Perdu’s mind is also the search for a mysterious poet whose work had a deep impact on him.

On the unplanned journey, they meet interesting people, go to a town that has only books at its centre, and, well, life changes for the better. The landscapes they pass through are breathtaking, the food one of their guests cooks on the barge is divine…it wouldn’t be a spoiler to say that Perdu does find the poet and everybody finds love in a fairytale-like happily ever after ending.

Perdu’s adventures are punctuated with entries from Manon’s diaries, which give hints and finally reveals, why she upped and left him

The translation tends to make the book sound stilted, but if the story of repairing broken hearts and beating melancholy through books appeals, then this one is charming and feel-good, and studded with words of wisdom.  (“The trouble is that so many people, most of them women, think they have to have a perfect body to be loved. But all it has to do is be capable of loving – and being loved.”) Still, it is often contrived and much too sweet, so that it feels like a meal of only gooey dessert.

The best thing about the book ( reminiscent of The Collected Works of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin) is that it has a list of Provencal recipes at the end and also some delightful prescriptions from Jean Perdu’s Emergency Literary Pharmacy—that is, books to uplift the soul. Of these, The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery is heartily recommended.

The Little Paris Bookshop

by Nina George

Published by Crown

Pages: 392