Info
Genre: Contemporary
Pages: 392
Published: April 26th 2013
Goodreads Rating: 3.5 / 5
My Rating: 3 / 5
Plot Summary
Monsieur Perdu is 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 as he is still haunted by heartbreak after his great love disappeared leaving only a letter behind. A letter which still hasn’t read.
After finally giving in to his temptation and reading it 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 bestselling but blocked author and a lovelorn Italian chef, Perdu travels along the country’s rivers, dispensing his wisdom and his books.
Character Development
Monsieur Perdu is a man with a gift for helping people cope with their struggles through reading but can’t seem to do much for his own. Haunted with the abandonment from his great love he is in denial for years before deciding to quit his misery and take life in his own hands.
Max Zordan, a popular writer and Perdu’s neighbor, suffers from a writer’s block and doesn’t have plot ideas for another book. The lack of life experiences and difficult relationship with his father make him eager to follow Perdu on his travel in order to seek some sort of inspiration.
The Italian chef is the third passenger on the journey with Perdu’s barge. A man with a rare culinary gift whose one night stand with a tourist woman made him completely enamoured with her and desperate to find her again.
Themes
The themes portrayed in the book have a versatile nature. The central one is about the power of books in shaping people’s lives (for the better or worse).
The second one speaks of the strength one must possess in the face of tragedy and not lettting it break him/her.
Another interesting theme is the true power of love, which makes people try things that are out of their comfort zone in order to experience this unique feeling to it’s ultimate potential.
Last but not least, despite the sufferings of the past it is possible to start anew and create something beautiful from the ashes.
My Thoughts
The Little Paris Bookshop follows a charming concept about the power books have to our lives and I think that every bibliophile out there should give it a try.
