Juliette spend hours every week travelling on line 6 of the metro, and has come to know her fellow passengers by sight. She knows which of them love to read romances, which just stare out of the window, and has come to care for them. She always has a book with her but finds herself more often than not people watching instead. One day, she decides to get off the metro early and go for a walk. She happens upon a treasure trove of books, watched over by Soliman and his daughter Zaide. Soliman spreads his books throughout the city through a network of passeurs who watch people, picking out the perfect book for them. Soliman himself rarely leaves his book den, preferring instead to travel through reading. Juliette soon finds herself with a heavy bag of books she’s meant to find the perfect person for with no idea how to go about the task. An opportunity soon presents itself as she assists her colleague Chloe with selling a difficult flat with the help of du Maurier’s Rebecca. This reinvigorates her belief in every reader having the perfect book for the moment it finds them in. This gentle novel follows her as she explores her new role and considers where the right balance is between getting lost in the world of books and engaging with the world around her.
The most engaging character in the novel is probably Zaide. She is confident and intriguing, and the first person Juliette meets when she goes for her walk. She appears independent, roaming the streets on her own, a book propped in the front door of their home to keep it open for her. As she and Juliette come to know each other more she proves herself to be insightful and encourages Juliette out beyond her comfort zone. Her complicated family life does not seem to have negatively impacted her too badly, but she has gained a maturity through it while retaining a child’s eye view of the world which allows her to see things more clearly than many adults.
Juliette herself is quite a solitary character, living her little life quite contentedly. She doesn’t long for any great adventure or to move outside of her normal routine too much. Meeting Soliman allows her the opportunity to try a different way of living and it suits her. The Paris setting is also fairly incidental - there were times when I wondered if I’d simply assumed it was set in Paris. The main heart of the novel is the characters’ love of books. It reminded me of The Little Paris Bookshop but with less of a plot. This is a gentle read which doesn’t invite too much questioning of the practicalities of the lifestyle choices of the characters. Beautifully written, this meandering novel is a lovely read if you want to escape from the world for a while.
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