A Novel Bookstore

Cossé, a noted journalist as well as a successful novelist in her native France, has a gift for clever if sometimes heavy-handed satire of the Paris literary scene, even if her characters behave like stock figures. Hélas, the novel's ending falls flat, and the mystery's resolution evokes a

Show More

resounding "Huh?" Still, many readers will find a reason to linger in "A Novel Bookstore," which makes a good argument for literature as a sensual pleasure surpassing even sex and fine wine.

Show Less

Cossé cleverly constructs the mystery with even a dash of romance, but that's not the best part of the book. "A Novel Bookstore" succeeds by conveying true book lust: It's packed with sublime, enthusiastic descriptions of reading and literature.

Several mysteries are plumbed, if not necessarily solved, in this most engaging and winning novel[.]

Cossé poignantly depicts characters who have turned to literature for solace against the pain in their lives, creates ongoing speculation as to the shadowy first-person narrator, and furnishes sly commentary about gatekeeping in the literary world. Though purists may be disappointed with the

Show More

solution to the mystery, there's plenty of food for thought.

Show Less

While the central mystery stalls and dissipates without satisfactory resolution, the central conceit—what place is there for great and often difficult literature in a mercenary world—is manifest in the plight of the store and the disruptive influence it has on critics and booksellers the world

Show More

over. The book’s real strength is its romances—of both the bookish and human varieties.

Show Less