The Lost Bookshop

Evie Woods

4 stars

Format: Paperback

At its core, The Lost Bookshop is about finding your own strength and discovering who you really are. This theme is woven into a story of love and pain, sprinkled with magical realism and seasoned with historic fiction. A little something for everyone, no?

Each chapter is narrated in first person by the same three characters — Opaline, Martha, and Henry. Evie Woods creates a distinct voice for each, no easy feat. Opaline is a young woman in her 20s who escapes her tyrannical brother in 1920s London to find a life of her own. In present-day Dublin, Martha leaves her abusive husband and begins working for an elderly yet sharp woman named Madame Bowden. Then there is Henry, a literary PhD student researching a lost manuscript, who crosses paths with Martha.

Opaline’s story spans several decades and takes the reader to some pretty horrific lows. I was most invested in her story and would have gladly read a 400-page literary novel to delve deeper into her life. Evie Woods did a wonderful job writing Opaline as someone with childlike wonder as well as adult gumption.

Several times throughout the novel Henry explains that Opaline is one of the greatest book antiquarians of the twentieth century, but we never really see that play out in her POV chapters. I kept waiting for her renown to be acknowledged outside of Henry’s narration. Her ending is also open-ended in a way that feels unfair to the reader. She finds love and some truth, but then what?

As the dedication says, this is a story for all the book lovers. We get some Emily Bronte fanfic and some heavyweight English authors as side characters. But most of all, the readers are introduced to a bookshop that may or may not have its own soul. There was something quietly magical about a bookshop needing the right person walking amongst its shelves. It buzzed with life.

If you keep an open mind and enjoy the story for what it is then you will not be disappointed. The ending was lovely and the characters well-developed. The Lost Bookshop does not have witches and gargoyles come to life, but instead a skill akin to The Shining and stained glass that seems to change with its mood. This book is best suited for a day snuggling under an oversized blanket and drinking a hot cup of tea.