Who doesn’t love browsing through a bookstore? But let’s face it, we can’t always be there in person. Thankfully, authors have come to the rescue with books about bookstores!
With these four books you can enjoy the experience from the comfort of your couch. So, grab your copy and walk right into a bookshop!
This story is, in short, about a monster meeting another monster. One of the monsters is me. Yunjae was born with a brain condition called alexithymia that makes it hard for him to feel emotions. He does not have friends—the two almond-shaped neurons located deep in his brain have seen to that—but his devoted mother and grandmother provide him with a safe and con- tent life. On Christmas Eve—Yunjae’s sixteenth birthday—everything changes.
A shocking act of random violence shatters his world, leaving him on his own. Struggling to cope with his loss, Yunjae retreats into silent isolation, until troubled teenager Gon arrives at his school, and the two develop a surprising bond. As Yunjae begins to open his life to new people—including a girl at school—something slowly changes inside him. And when Gon suddenly finds his life at risk, Yunjae will have the chance to step outside of every comfort zone he has created to perhaps become the hero of his own story.
“Even though my brain was a mess, what kept my soul whole was the warmth of the hands holding mine on both sides.”
“There is no such person who can’t be saved. There are only people who give up on trying to save others.”
Won-pyung Sohn earned a bachelor’s degree at Sogang University and studied film directing at the Korean Academy of Film Arts. She won the Film Review Award of the 6th Cine21 in 2001. Almond is her debut novel and it won the Changbi Prize,immediately garnering rave reactions from the readers. Her next work, Born in 1988 won the Jeju 4.3 Peace Literary Award.
She is active in both movie and literary scenes as a film director, screenwriter, and novelist. Sandy Joosun Lee is a translator and interpreter based in Seoul. She earned a BA in Literature/ Writing from the University of California, San Diego. She has received translation grants from Literary Translation Institute of Korea and Publication Industry Promotion Agency of Korea. She currently works at Studio Mir where she translates and develops animated content.
Want to know what Won-pyung Shon has to say about her book? Read exclusive interviews by Authorlink and K-Book Trends.
‘A boldly original piece of fiction, plumbing the depths of the human condition with plenty of humor along the way.’ — Entertainment Weekly
“In what might be the first novel to feature a protagonist with alexithymia—an inability to identify and express one’s feelings—Korean novelist Sohn’s affecting debut arrives stateside. Raised by his grandmother and mother who worked diligently to guide him through everyday social interactions, Yunjae at 15 is effectively orphaned…. As Yunjae risks communication and connection, the eponymous almond—the undeveloped amygdalae of his brain—takes seed, and gives Yunjae the courage to claim ‘an entirely different story. New and unknown.’ Winner of the prestigious Changbi Prize for Young Adult Fiction in Korea, Sohn presents a 15-year-old neurodiverse protagonist with much resonance.” — Booklist (starred review)
“In her debut novel, director and screenwriter Sohn makes the bold decision to choose an emotionally constricted first-person narrator, but the risk pays off. With the aid of a skillful translation…the novel will appeal fully to adults, but mature young readers who must cope in their everyday lives with the struggles of late adolescence will find themselves identifying with Yunjae and moved by his plight. A sensitive exploration of what it’s like to live at life’s emotional poles.” — Kirkus Reviews
‘Intense and moving…a phenomenal book that deserves a wide audience among readers.’ — Wall Street Journal
When twenty-five-year-old Takako’s boyfriend reveals he’s marrying someone else, she reluctantly accepts her eccentric uncle Satoru’s offer to live rent-free in the tiny room above his shop.
Hidden in Jimbocho, Tokyo, the Morisaki Bookshop is a booklover’s paradise. On a quiet corner in an old wooden building, the shop is filled with hundreds of second-hand books. It is Satoru’s pride and joy, and he has devoted his life to the bookshop since his wife left him five years earlier.
Hoping to nurse her broken heart in peace, Takako is surprised to encounter new worlds within the stacks of books lining the shop.
And as summer fades to autumn, Satoru and Takako discover they have more in common than they first thought. The Morisaki bookshop has something to teach them both about life, love, and the healing power of books.
“It’s funny. No matter where you go, or how many books you read, you still know nothing, you haven’t seen anything. And that’s life.”
“I don’t think it really matters whether you know a lot about books or not. That said, I don’t know that much myself. But I think what matters far more with a book is how it affects you.”
Satoshi Yagisawa was born in Chiba, Japan, in 1977. His debut novel, Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, won the Chiyoda Literature Prize.
“Ozawa’s translation gracefully captures the author’s whimsical and tender voice. Yagisawa has the right touch for lifting a reader’s mood.” — Publishers Weekly
‘The unadorned simplicity of Takako’s voice is anything but subtle, but it’s somehow winning in its guilelessness . . . . Days at the Morisaki Bookshop draws a strong connection between the empathy unleashed by great literature and Takako’s growing sense of self-confidence and well-being.’ — NPR
‘Yagisawa’s prose is clean and direct even as he describes the Morisaki Bookshop and the city that surrounds it with extraordinary care and detail. The characters are also compelling, but it is really the setting and the atmosphere that stand out in this novel. Readers will want to linger in this world. They will want more when this concise tale ends.’ — Booklist
‘Ozawa’s translation preserves the drollness and buoyancy of Takako’s first-person narrative of small pleasures and mysteries. A familiar romance about books and bookstores, told with heart and humor.’ — Kirkus Reviews
‘A slender book, but one rich in experience, exactly like the tiny, crammed Morisaki bookshop itself.’ — New York Journal of Books
London, 1962: The world is teetering on the brink of nuclear war but life must go on. Celia Duchesne longs for a career, but with no means or qualifications, passes her time working at a dusty bookshop. The day a handsome American enters the shop, she thinks she might have found her way out of the monotony. Just as the excitement of a budding relationship engulfs her, a devastating secret draws her into the murky world of espionage.
France, 1942: Nineteen-year-old Anya Moreau was dropped behind enemy lines to aid the resistance, sending messages back home to London via wireless transmitter. When she was cruelly betrayed, evidence of her legacy and the truth of her actions were buried by wartime injustices.
As Celia learns more about Anya—and her unexpected connection to the undercover agent—she becomes increasingly aware of furious efforts, both past and present, to protect state secrets. With her newly formed romance taking a surprising turn and the world on the verge of nuclear annihilation, Celia must risk everything she holds dear, in the name of justice.
“She hopes that one of them will be man enough (perhaps that should be woman enough?) to back down and admit that peace comes before ego and winning.
Because with nuclear war, there can be no winners.”
Louise Fein is the author of Daughter of the Reich, which has been published in thirteen territories, and the international bestseller The Hidden Child.
She was previously a lawyer and banker and holds an MA in Creative Writing from St Mary’s University. She now writes full time. Equally passionate about historical research and writing, she loves to look for themes which have resonance with today’s world. Louise lives in the Surrey countryside, UK, with her family, and is a slave to the daily demands of her pets.
Want to know what Louise Fein has to say about her book? Read an exclusive interview by The Book Delight here.
“The London Bookshop Affair is several books at once: a family chronicle, a coming-of-age tale, a love story and (in roundabout but effective fashion) an espionage thriller. Ms. Fein does an admirable job of attending to each of these aspects, while timing revelations in ways that heighten suspense and afford every character his or her due.” — Wall Street Journal
“This dual-timeline story, which bounces readers between Nazi-occupied France and a London in the shadow of the Cuban Missile Crisis, will keep readers on the edge of their seats with its many twists and turns. In this gripping story of love and betrayal, loosely based on real-life figures and events, even the author’s note at the end is a riveting must-read.” — Library Journal (starred review)
“Based on actual events that occurred during the global missile crisis of October 1962, Fein’s historical novel examines this pivotal era through an intensely personal lens.” — Booklist
“Superb: an intriguing story about love, loss, and subterfuge and how, with courage, ordinary people are capable extraordinary things. Gripping: an engaging and well-researched story that was both moving and compelling in one.” — Gillian Harvey, bestselling author of A Year at the French Farmhouse
Read more reviews here.
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.
“Lost is not a hopeless place to be. It is a place of patience, of waiting. Lost does not mean gone for ever. Lost is a bridge between worlds, where the pain of our past can be transformed into power. You have always held the key to this special place, but now you are ready to unlock the door.”
“I couldn’t explain it, not even to myself, but books gave me an unflinching sense of stability and groundedness. That because words survived, somehow, I would too.”
Evie Woods is the author of The Lost Bookshop, the #1 Wall Street Journal and Amazon Kindle and Sunday Times bestseller, which has now sold over half a million copies. She is also the author of The Story Collector, The Heirloom and The Mysterious Bakery On Rue De Paris under her real name, Evie Gaughan.
Living on the West Coast of Ireland, Evie escapes the inclement weather by writing her stories in a converted attic, where she dreams of underfloor heating. Her books tread the intriguing line between the everyday and the otherworldly, revealing the magic that exists in our ordinary lives.
“Partly set in the 1920s Golden Age of rare and antiquarian book dealing, The Lost Bookshop is the story of a female bookdealer, an unusual bookshop, a hidden manuscript and the two people drawn together in order to solve the mystery, one hundred years later. This book celebrates not only the power of books themselves to change our lives, but the wonder they awaken within us, reminding us that anything is possible. Think Midnight in Paris meets Emily Henry!
I’m actually in love with this book. I loved writing it, researching it, refining it and crafting these characters. It’s the kind of story I’ve always dreamed of writing and exactly what I would want to read myself. As far as my writing career goes, this really feels like the stars have aligned. It feels right to begin this new chapter (sorry!) with a new pen name, Evie Woods. I guess this means I’m married to my writing! Which feels kind of true. It’s my home, where I go to find myself and lose myself in equal measure. And I hope you’ll come on this journey with me.”
“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?’”
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