From the Bookshelves

source: here

We want books that are written for those of us who doubt everything, who cry over the least little thing, who are startled by the slightest noise.

We want books that cost their authors a great deal, books where you can feel the years of work, the backache, the writer's block, the author's panic at the thought that he might be lost: his discouragement, his courage, his anguish, his stubbornness, the risk of failure he has taken.


We want splendid books, books that immerse us in the splendor of reality and keep us there; books that prove to us that love is at work in the world next to evil, right up against it, at times indistinctly, and that it always will be, just the way that suffering will always ravage hearts. We want good novels.
 
-A Novel Bookstore, by Laurence Cosse


A Novel Bookstore, translated into English by Alison Anderson (who also translated the lovely Elegance of the Hedgehog), is an ode. It is a love song to great literature, of all sorts, and one of the few books that made me want to create a list of every book mentioned in it and run to the library. The characters are so wonderfully developed, so subtle, in a way that I, honestly, can only compare to that French women are stunningly stylish in such an undone almost careless way. It's a thriller, it's a romance, it keeps you guessing, and it tugs at your very heartstrings. All this, plus passages of beautifully written word that just make you pause for the glory of a sentence.