The Little Paris Bookshop

A Novel

De: Nina George

Narrado por: Steve West, Emma Bering, Cassandra Campbell

"There are books that are suitable for a million people, others for only a hundred. There are even remedies - I mean books - that were written for one person only.... A book is both medic and medicine at once. It makes a diagnosis as well as offering therapy. Putting the right novels to the appropriate ailments: That's how I sell books."

Monsieur Perdu calls himself a literary apothecary. From his floating bookstore in a barge on the Seine, he prescribes novels for the hardships of life. Using his intuitive feel for the exact book a reader needs, Perdu mends broken hearts and souls. The only person he can't seem to heal through literature is himself; he's still haunted by heartbreak after his great love disappeared. She left him with only a letter, which he has never opened.

After Perdu is finally tempted to read the letter, he hauls anchor and departs on a mission to the south of France, hoping to make peace with his loss and discover the end of the story. Joined by a best-selling but blocked author and a lovelorn Italian chef, Perdu travels along the country's rivers, dispensing his wisdom and his books, showing that the literary world can take the human soul on a journey to heal itself.

Internationally best selling and filled with warmth and adventure, The Little Paris Bookshop is a love letter to books, meant for anyone who believes in the power of stories to shape people's lives.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2015 Nina George (P)2015 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

" The Little Paris Bookshop is an enchantment. Set in a floating barge along the Seine, this love letter to books - and to the complicated, sometimes broken people who are healed by them - is the next best thing to booking a trip to France." (Sarah Pekkanen, author of Catching Air)

"Simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming, Nina George's impressionistic prose takes the reader on a journey not just through the glories of France and the wonders of books, but through the encyclopedic panoply of human emotions. The Little Paris Bookshop is a book whose palette, textures, and aromas will draw you in and cradle you in the redemptive power of love." (Charlie Lovett, author of The Bookman's Tale)

"Nina George tells us clever things about love, about reading that 'puts a bounce in your step', about tango in Provence, and about truly good food.... One of those books that gets you thinking about whom you need to give it to as a gift even while you're still reading it, because it makes you happy and should be part of any well-stocked apothecary." ( Hamburger Morgenpost [Germany])

Feels like a debut novel

I downloaded this because I was going to Paris and thought it would be fun to read while I was in France. I have to say that there are moments in the story and the writing that are lovely - well written and beautifully crafted but the majority of the story is forced and tacked on. I had expected something more by the title and it didn't deliver. Too bad.

The narration is awful - the attempts to sound French fall very flat.

Beautiful

Art is meant to make us feel at fundamental levels, to stir something within and to inspire. This treatise on love contains everything to be considered a masterpiece in its own right.

rich, seductive, delicious and delightful!

Jean Perdu is the owner of a bookstore/barge on the Seine. He considers himself a literary apothecary, able to diagnose the true needs of any patron's heart and prescribe just the books s/he needs to read to heal. His own broken heart is the one he can't heal, until he hauls anchor and floats down France's inland waterways with a young author suffering from writers' block, an Italian chef, and a couple of cats, bartering books for food and other essentials, since they have no cash.....The imagery of the French countryside, the food, the cafes, dancehalls, riverbanks, vineyards and people is intoxicatingly vivid.
The book is beautifully written, the author coining many an elegant or insightful phrase that made me wish I had a printed edition in front of me, so I could linger over the words and marvel at the construction. But then I'd miss the perfect narration.
It's a gentle story for people who love books and believe in their ability to reach a lost soul or change the direction of a life, people who love good food, people who love.
I enjoyed this (internationally bestselling) book immensely, and can't say enough good things about it!

Wonderful

What did you like best about this story?

It was just beautiful, an excellent portrayal of love and adventure.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Definatley makes you happy and sad.

great story of connectedness and emotions

loved it. really enjoyed the focus on how allowing ourselves connections and to feel change our lives.

One read is not enough!

This book is so packed with wisdom, philosophy, humor and pathos that I want to read it again to get the full measure of it's breadth. A splendid, thought provoking journey through the intuitive, intellectual and emotional realms of one's life. Magnificent writing that is addictive and insightful.

Emotional Themes, But It Didn't Really Grab Me

Although I wouldn't characterize this story as "depressing," it contains themes that require deep thought, such as loss, grief, one of a kind love, depression, isolation, and friendship. There were a few passages and comments that I bookmarked - mainly having to do with the process of grief, and one good one about emotional abuse from parent to child.
I didn't find the book to be a waste of time, but it wasn't one that I couldn't wait to listen to in every free moment I could find. I don't feel that it is one I would recommend to friends.
Steve West's narration of the male characters was good - each had their own sound - but all of the female voices sounded the same. I find that this is a mistake that male narrators make - they use a bit more head tone and all of the female characters sound like the same slightly dumb/coy/trashy women, even when they are not supposed to.
The author clearly gave quite a bit of thought to the importance of books for the soul, and she drew great word pictures to help the reader see what she was seeing. She wrote a story of great emotions, but it just didn't grab me.

Very descriptive...

The story and characters were well developed, but there was a little too much introspection. The descriptive narration drug on too much by the end. A rewarding ending though.

Loved it!

What's not to like about a love story set in France? I enjoyed the character development and the setting of the book, especially the descriptions of the French countryside. I felt like I was there!

An interesting read

This is a book about love, loss, and the journey to find one's self, but make note that this is not your lovey-dovey love story if that's what you're looking for.

Set in a French landscape, this story flowed in that frilly, descriptive pattern that beautifully paints a picture found in French dialogue. We follow Perdu, owner of a floating bookstore, on a journey of confronting his past after twenty-one years of trying to wall it away from existence. Perdu has a gift of being able to read one's soul and prescribe the best book to heal that person at that time, but he cannot heal himself. At times, the story was slow but so was his journey, and the pace helped the reader understand that.

As the story of lost love and heartache can be, this one was not as uplifting as many readers might hope - it is full of emotions. The learning lessons scattered throughout can be seen as a beacon of hope for most though, making the culmination at the end worth the ride.

Regardless of the pace or any other aspect that might have irked me at times during the read, the quotes alone made the book spectacular. Here are some of my favorite:

"We cannot decide to love. We cannot compel anyone to love us. There's no secret recipe, only love itself. And we are at its mercy--there's nothing we can do."

"Memories are like wolves. You can’t lock them away and hope they leave you alone."

"The trouble is that so many people, most of them women, think they have to have a perfect body to be loved. But all it has to do is be capable of loving – and being loved."

"Fear transforms your body like an inept sculptor does a perfect block of stone. It’s just that you’re chipped away at from within, and no one sees how many splinters and layers have been taken off you. You become ever thinner and more brittle inside, until even the slightest emotion bowls you over. One hug, and you think you’re going to shatter and be lost."