The Lost Bookshop: The most charming and uplifting novel for 2024 and the perfect gift for book lovers! by Evie Woods
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The Lost Bookshop: The most charming and uplifting novel for 2024 and the perfect gift for book lovers!

by

Evie Woods

(Author)

4.4

-

64,982 ratings


The Echo of Old Books meets The Lost Apothecary in this evocative and charming novel full of mystery and secrets.

‘The thing about books,’ she said ‘is that they help you to imagine a life bigger and better than you could ever dream of.’ On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found…

For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives.

But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder… where nothing is as it seems.

Readers have fallen in love with The Lost Bookshop: ‘Beautifully written and captures the wonder and awe that a story can bring to its reader…a delightful story for any book lover…an ode to storytelling and the connections that books can make!’

‘Wowwww!! It’s been awhile since I read something so fascinating, captivating and special all in one…It takes you on a journey like most books do, but this one, I just want to inscribe on my back and hope that it becomes a part of me so that I can carry it with me always’

‘A must read for readers that love books’

‘A beautiful story that begs to be read in one sitting…a magical story filled with beautiful prose and many surprises that readers will not soon forget'

‘This spellbinding book hooked me from the very beginning and I couldn't put it down til the end’

‘A love story, one with books and booklovers at its heart. A warm, wonderful novel that sweeps up the reader into an absorbing, magical tale’

‘If you enjoy books by the Brontë sisters … then I would fully recommend you read this book’

‘This novel has it all: wit, a dash of magic, and a large heart. A fantastic read’

Evie Woods's book 'The Lost Bookshop' was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 2023-12-18.

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ISBN-10

0008609217

ISBN-13

978-0008609214

Print length

448 pages

Language

English

Publisher

One More Chapter

Publication date

November 06, 2023

Dimensions

5.08 x 1.26 x 7.8 inches

Item weight

9.9 ounces


Product details

ASIN :

B0BMF2M8Z6

File size :

2865 KB

Text-to-speech :

Enabled

Screen reader :

Supported

Enhanced typesetting :

Enabled

X-Ray :

Enabled

Word wise :

Enabled


Editorial reviews

‘The characters are so very well developed that it makes you feel that you are there with them sharing their stories too… kept me turning the pages’

‘A truly joyful, magical book…this story will capture your heart’

‘Couldn’t put it down!…a magical, enthralling read’

‘One book that I liked so much and would gladly pay more for… one of those books that you constantly ask yourself “how did the author come up with this great story?”’

‘Utterly magical and absorbing…the mysterious bookshop and the promise of finding a long lost manuscript haunts the pages’

‘An enchanting plot, fabulous characters, and some good historical fiction… I found myself imagining it as a Netflix series’

‘I absolutely adored this book! A touch of magic, a love of books, pure escapism, perfect!’

--This text refers to the paperback edition.


Sample

Chapter One

OPALINE

London, 1921

Ilet my fingers run along the spine of the book, letting the indentations of the embossed cover guide my skin to something tangible; something that I believed in more than the fiction that was playing out before me. Twenty-one years of age and my mother had decided that the time had come for me to marry. My brother, Lyndon, had rather unhelpfully found some dim-witted creature who had just inherited the family business; something to do with importing something or other from some far-flung place. I was barely listening.

‘There are only two options open to a woman your age,’ Mother pronounced, putting down her cup and saucer on the table beside her armchair. ‘One is to marry, and the other to find a post in keeping with her gentility.’

‘Gentility?’ I echoed, with some incredulity. Looking around the drawing room with its chipped paint and faded curtains, I had to admire her vanity. She had married beneath her station and had always been at pains to remind my father, lest he forgot.

‘Must you do that now?’ my brother Lyndon asked, as Mrs Barrett, our housemaid, cleared out the ashes from the grate.

‘Madam requested a fire,’ she said in a tone that showed no inflexion of respect. She had been with us for as long as I could remember and only took orders from my mother. The rest of us she treated like cheap imposters.

‘The fact of the matter is that you must marry,’ Lyndon parroted as he limped across the room, leaning heavily on his walking stick. Twenty years my elder, the entire right side of his body had been warped by shrapnel during the war in Flanders and the brother I once knew stayed buried somewhere in that very field. The horrors he held in his eyes frightened me, and even though I didn’t like to admit it, I had grown fearful of him. ‘This is a good match. Father’s pension is barely enough for Mother to run the house. It’s time you took your head out of your books and faced reality.’

I clung tighter to my book. A rare first American edition of Wuthering Heights, a gift from my father, along with a deep love of reading. Like a talisman, I had carried the cloth-covered book, whose spine bore the duplicitous line, tooled in gold, ‘by the author of Jane Eyre’. We had come across it by complete chance at a flea market in Camden (a secret we could not tell Mother). I would later discover that Emily’s English publisher had permitted this misattribution in order to capitalise on Jane Eyre’s commercial success. It was not in perfect condition; the cloth boards were worn on the edges and the back one had a v-shape nicked out of it. The pages were coming loose, as the threads that sewed them together were fraying with age and use. But to me, all of these features, including the cigar-smoke smell of the paper, were like a time machine. Perhaps the seeds were sown then. A book is never what it seems. I think my father had hoped my love of books would instil an interest in my schooling, but if anything, it only fuelled my loathing for the classroom. I tended to live in my imagination and so, every evening, I would race home from school and ask him to read to me. He was a civil servant, an honest man with a passion for learning. He always said that books were more than words on paper; they were portals to other places, other lives. I fell in love with books and the vast worlds they held inside, and I owed it all to my father. ‘If you tilt your head,’ he told me once, ‘you can hear the older books whispering their secrets.’

I found an antique book on the shelf with a calfskin cover and time-coloured pages. I held it up to my ear and closed my eyes tight; imagining that I could hear whatever important secrets the author was trying to tell me. But I couldn’t hear it, not the words at least.

‘What do you hear?’ he asked.

I waited, let the sound fill my ears.

‘I hear the sea!’

It was like having a shell to my ear, with the air swirling through the pages. He smiled and held my cheek in his hand.

‘Are they breathing, Papa?’ I asked.

‘Yes,’ he said, ‘the stories are breathing.’

When he finally succumbed to the Spanish Flu in 1918, I stayed up all night by his side, holding his cold hand, reading his favourite story. The Personal History of David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens. In some silly way, I thought that the words would bring him back.

‘I refuse to marry a man I’ve never even met purely to aid the family finances. The whole idea is preposterous!’

Mrs Barrett dropped the brush as I spoke and the sound of metal on marble churned my brother’s features. He loathed any loud noises.

‘Get out of here now!’

The poor woman had very unreliable knees and it took three failed attempts before she got up and left the room. How she managed to refrain from slamming the door behind her, I will never know. I continued with my defence.

‘If I am such a burden to you both, I will simply move out.’

‘And where on earth do you think you would go? You have no money,’ my mother pointed out. Now in her sixties, she had always referred to my arrival in the family as their ‘little surprise’, which would have sounded quaint had I not been aware of her loathing for surprises. Growing up in a household of an older generation only compounded my urge to break free and experience the modern world.

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About the authors

Evie Woods

Evie Woods

Evie Woods is the author of The Lost Bookshop, the #1 Wall Street Journal, Sunday Times and Amazon Kindle bestseller, which was shortlisted for a British Book Award, and translated into 21 languages. Her new novel, The Story Collector will be published in July 2024.Evie lives on the West Coast of Ireland where she escapes the inclement weather by writing stories that push the boundary between what is real and what we wish were so. Drawing inspiration from the unseen forces that shape our lives and the healing power of storytelling, she invites the reader to embrace the magic that exists in our ordinary lives.

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Reviews

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

64,982 global ratings

Hayden

Hayden

5

What is lost can be found.

Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2024

Verified Purchase

Within this book they often speak on how books find the person not the other way around. I feel as if in this case this book found me as it felt like just the thing I needed to read. I loved the shifting between the story of Opaline in the 1920s and Martha and Henry in the now. I thought that just the hunt for the bookshop tied them together, but I loved watching the pieces fall into place.

The parallels between Martha and Opaline were great. Not only were they women growing into their own, but they also had to deal with horrible men controlling their lives albeit in different ways. Martha’s husband seeks to hurt her in order to keep her obedient and Opaline’s brother expects her to be obedient and just agree to this marriage. While Opaline was able to reclaim her life after 18 years in the asylum at her brother’s orders the shop decided it would not let another person take its owner. Then later revealing that Martha is in fact the great granddaughter of Opaline. Tears came to my eyes learning that in fact her baby did not die during childbirth.

Madame Bowden had me confused the entire time, I thought she might have been Opaline still alive and waiting to pass on her store. But I believe that she was in fact the spirit of the store itself. This bookstore welcomes all who are looking for a path and are brave enough to take the leap and find their own destiny.

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2 people found this helpful

Carol A. Lynn

Carol A. Lynn

5

Magical!

Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2024

Verified Purchase

What a lovely book! Charming, witty, mysterious and magical - a good story that was impossible to put down. Alternating story lines between the present day, early 1920s Ireland and a bit of Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters. Absolutely recommend for anyone who loves books and stories about them. Five stars!

Shay M.

Shay M.

5

What can I say? I loved it.

Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2024

Verified Purchase

I honestly don’t have anything bad to say. And that says a lot because I’ve read a lot!

Slow burn isn’t the word to describe it however Woods took her time & I’m so glad she did. With every letter and word, I was able to piece it all together and really feel what I was reading. Not many authors that can do that nowadays.

Magnificent. Can’t wait to see more come from her! Great read & one of my favorite birthday gifts to myself.

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