Paris in July 2021 - The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George

Another day in Paris and what is more perfect than to combine Paris and a bookshop? That is what Nina George does in her novel about Monsieur Perdu and his broken heart. 

“There are books that are suitable for a million people, others for only a hundred. There are even remedies—I mean books—that were written for one person only…A book is both medic and medicine at once. It makes a diagnosis as well as offering therapy. Putting the right novels to the appropriate ailments: that’s how I sell books.”

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."

This story could easily become banal and tear dripping, but Nina George is balancing the lives of her characters in a marvellous way. As we meet Monsieur Perdu he is living a simple and lonely life. Perdu means lost in French and we realise rather quickly that he is really lost. Twenty years earlier his girlfriend left him and he never got over it. For twenty years he has been living in an apartment house where he politely speaks with the neighbours, without getting too personal, but still knowing what is going on in the house. Something changes when a young writer, Max, who unexpectedly made a hit with his first book, moves into the house. He is traumatised by the pressure of writing another book and is hiding from the world. Then Catherine moves in opposite Monsieur Perdu. She has been dumped by her husband and is left without much belongings. When Monsieur Perdu offers her an old table, his life takes an unexpected turn.

The characters of this book are likeable although one is wondering what they are doing with their lives. Monsieur Perdu is of course the most scary example of someone who stopped living his life, due to an unhappy love affair. Max withdraws from the world due to outside pressure and Catherine is licking her wounds in isolation. Sometimes one might need a sparkle of some kind to be able to see ones own life from the outside. This happens to Perdu when he finally reads the letter his girl friend sent him that long ago. This is the turning point of his sad life and at the spur of the moment he heads south searching for the truth. By chance Max is accompanying him on the trip and as they run into new acquaintances, see other kinds of circumstances, they start themselves to reconsider their own lives. 

Nina George holds the reins of her story strictly to the end. Of course I did cry a little bit as always, but the story never enters into banality or very, romantic notions, although one can guess the end. It stays stable on the ground and I think that is why I really liked this book. Maybe also because I thought it would be a very romantic read, but found sort of realistic characters and personal feelings. A feel good novel, with a little bit more food for thoughts than usual run books of this kind.