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Found in a Bookshop - Stephanie Butland

 


Description

'A delightful and original concept about how a second hand bookshop can heal a community' Katie Fforde

'What a lovely book - so assured and gentle, full of compassion and replete with astute observations of human nature and behaviour' Carys Bray

Dear Lost for Words,

We are trying to stay at home . . . I am enclosing a cheque and I hope that you will use it to send us some books. Please choose books that we might think are wonderful.

Rosemary

Loveday Cardew's beloved Lost for Words bookshop, along with the rest of York, has fallen quiet. At the very time when people most need books to widen their horizons, or escape from their fears, or enhance their lives, the doors are closed. Then the first letter comes.

Rosemary and George have been married for fifty years. Now their time is running out. They have decided to set out on their last journey together, without ever leaving the bench at the bottom of their garden in Whitby. All they need is someone who shares their love of books.

Suddenly it's clear to Loveday that she and her team can do something useful in a crisis. They can recommend books to help with the situations their customers find themselves in: fear, boredom, loneliness, the desire for laughter and escape.

And so it begins.

Review

I really enjoyed this read, despite being in tears for most of the book.

I haven't read the predecessor to this book and did not realise one existed until I had finished. So this can definitely be read as a stand alone story. Set in the pandemic of 2020 it captures perfectly for me a lot of the feelings I had at that time. 

The preloved books of the Lost for Words bookshop are not being bought by anyone now the pandemic has taken hold and business are mainly shut. With few people venturing into York and passing trade non existent how will Loveday keep the shop afloat? That is when she hits on the idea of prescriptions for books, to help people through lockdown. People email in with what they are worried about or their fears and the bookshop staff suggest books and then deliver in York and surrounding areas or post them out.

I loved reading the suggestions of the books given and realised some of them are buried in my TBR. It was good to read a synopsis of why I was attracted to them in the first place. I kept stopping to research the books and worried I would not find them in the kindle version again. I need not have worried as at the end of the book they are all listed with a few more too.

We get to meet the people who have asked for the book suggestions and get a glimpse into their lives, some with a backstory before the pandemic. There's also some themes of abuse and of course death which are dealt with very sensitively but all the same are chilling at times.

If I had read this book before a lockdown I might have thought it was far fetched, but having lived through the reality this book and it's stories rang very true. For some it might be a time they wish not to revisit and then this won't be the book for you. It has some lovely highlights and even those made me cry! I liked the style of writing and will look out the predecessor novel.

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review. This book will be published on 23 April 2023.

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