Alas unforeseen circumstances meant I was unable to post my thoughts on my allocated day, my apologies to Rachel of Rachel's Random Resources. FGT
THE DOOR-TO-DOOR BOOKSTORE BY CARSTEN HENN {TRANSLATED BY MELODY SHAW}.
Genre ... Translated fiction, General Fiction/Book Club
Publication Date ... 9th November 2023
Publisher ... Manilla Press, Bonnier Books UK
Standalone Novel
Estimated Page Count ... 240
There's a book written for every one of us...
Carl may be 72 years old, but he's young at heart. Every night he goes door-to-door delivering books by hand to his loyal customers. He knows their every desire and preference, carefully selecting the perfect story for each person.
One evening as he makes his rounds, nine-year-old Schascha appears. Loud and precocious, she insists on accompanying him - and even tries to teach him a thing or two about books.
When Carl's job at the bookstore is threatened, will the old man and the girl in the yellow raincoat be able to restore Carl's way of life, and return the joy of reading to his little European town?
THE DOOR-TO-DOOR BOOKSTORE is a heart-warming tale of the value of friendship, the magic of reading, and the power of books to unite us all.
Translated by Melody Shaw
Like so many other readers, give me a book that features a bookworm, a librarian etc and/or is set in a library or bookstore etc and I'm happy. Combine this with the fact that woven into this nice, gentle read about the power of books to forge friendships there are lots of literary references and, needless to say, I'm as happy as the proverbial pig in muck.
A sweet read {that it touches on issues such as Domestic Violence and abuses of power and features an assault on one of the characters preventing it from perhaps being overly saccharine} at the heart of which are an elderly gentleman in his seventies and a schoolgirl who has yet to reach double figures.
For the main I thought Carl and Schascha a lovely pairing but I'm afraid for some reason I didn't really take to Schascha. Something that at first I couldn't quite fathom but the more I thought about it the more I came to realise that whilst I greatly admired how unselfconscious she was I actually found her quite pretentious.
As for Carl ...
A character I could easily relate to, his giving literary nick-names to those he delivered his books to something I'd do; his naming the cat that befriends him 'Dog' something that on the other hand Mr T would do. However, Hmm! How to put this without including any spoilers? Yes, of a different generation but for all of that I found Carl's naivety totally unbelievable to such a degree that whilst I can't say it exactly spoilt the book for me it did leave me disappointed in this one aspect of the story.
All in all though, those wanting a quaint read about the power of books to unite people could do a lot worse than pick up a copy of The Door-To-Door Bookstore.
Carsten Henn has worked as a radio presenter, wine and restaurant critic, and has published a number of successful novels. He lives in Germany.
Social Media Links ... Website Instagram
With thanks to Rachel of Rachel's Random Resources for organising a paper copy. One of several bloggers participating in the Blog Tour of this book, agree or disagree with me, all opinions are my own; no financial compensation was asked for nor given; threats of violence towards my favourite teddy bear went unheeded as did promises of chocolate.
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