The Little Paris Bookshop, Nina George

 The Little Paris Bookshop, Nina George

This book tells the adventure of a grieving man who owns a floating bookshop (boat turned bookshop) and his journey into letting go of a loved one lost, and learning to love again. 

Jean is a man in his 50s who is able to prescribe just the right book to help a reader's soul. He has incredible insight into what others need to read to help them heal or grow. He is an avid reader, and has turned a boat into a floating bookshop. One day, a tenant in the apartment building is in need of help--she just left her husband and is starting over with literally nothing---and he gives her a table from a room in his apartment that he has boarded up and forgotten about for 20 years. 

The neighbor discovers a letter inside a drawer in the table and returns it to him, which opens up a raw wound caused by the woman he loved with all his soul leaving him abruptly 20  years ago. He never read the letter, just hid it away because he was so angry being abandoned by her without even a goodbye. But when he finally opens the letter, he learns the truth---she was dying, and was leaving him to go spend her last months with her husband. She asked him to come. Her husband knew about him and would be expecting him.

20 years gone, and she must have died waiting for him to show up, and he was clueless to what was going on. He decides to lift anchor and head down the river, to find her husband and finally get some closure. 

A famous author quickly climbs aboard as he is setting out and goes with him. They have adventures along the way and meet some new friends, while learning about themselves, about life, death, grief, acceptance, and love.

This book was a little different from what I normally read. There was some  sexual language in it, but I was glad that there was not a lot of it. There was a lot of very vivid, colorful, poetic prose which did make the book more enjoyable. I liked how Jean, a loner without anyone in his life to love or even like, learned how to make friends, find love, and create his own unlikely family.