The Forgotten Bookshop in Paris

Daisy Wood

Until the end, when the two finally come together, this is really two completely different storylines connected only by a specific location.

In 1940, war is closing in on the city of Paris. When the Germans take over the city, Jacques and Mathilde have only been married for a short time. Itching to resist in whatever way she can, Mathilde soon puts herself at risk and must flee to safety in the south of France while Jacques stays behind and continues to operate his beloved bookstore, La Page Cachée. Hiding first banned books, and then people seeking refuge and a way to escape the city, in a hidden storeroom in his shop, Jacques too becomes involved in the resistance.

In 2022, Juliette, whose deceased grandmother was born in Paris, and her husband, Kevin, take a long awaited trip to the city of love. Armed only with a photograph of a painting that used to hang in her grandmother’s house in America, Juliette searches for and locates the small city square depicted in the painting. Discovering that her husband has been having an affair, she decides to stay behind in Paris and forge a new life for herself. There she finds passion and purpose in purchasing a small abandoned bookstore on the square that appeared in her grandmother’s painting, renovating it, and opening The Forgotten Bookshop.

I loved this book! Partially, perhaps, because I’ve always thought that if I was ever to open a business, it would be a bookstore, but also because I became completely engrossed in both storylines. Each time the book switched from past to present or vice versa, I was almost disappointed because I was so captivated by whichever story I was reading at the moment! Both heartwarming and heartbreaking, the well-researched wartime story with its very believable characters could easily stand alone. The modern story was a little more cliched, but until the very end, it kept me wondering how the two storylines would come together.

Daisy Wood has written several works of historical fiction for children and this is her second adult novel. As soon as I finished it, I ordered her first, The Clockmaker’s Wife, from the library. While The Forgotten Bookshop in Paris is my favourite of the two, I enjoyed that one too.