Micro Review 15

 

The Readers' Room by Antoine Laurain (trans. Aitkins, Boyce & Mackintosh) from Gallic Books

I've been a fan of Laurain's books since the very first one appeared in English and he has become one of the authors I look up regularly to see if there is a new book due. The problem with this eagerness is that once I get a copy in my hand I become really nervous that the book won't be as good as I hope and I put off starting it.

This time I had to read the book relatively swiftly as it was a library book with a waiting list of people also looking forward to it!

As with all of Laurain's books it is relatively short and really couldn't be anything other than French, the locations just really wouldn't (or couldn't) translate to anywhere else. This book was always going to appeal to me as it is set firmly in the book world and to be honest my dream job would be in Violaine's Readers' Room.

The mystery of this book is two fold - an anonymous book is taking the French literary world by storm and yet at the same time the events in the book are coming to life away from Paris. Can the two mysteries be solved before people lose their jobs or their lives?

I loved reading this book, I guessed very small details of the mysteries but regardless I loved spending time in the world of these people and like all the best books they lived for me. I could 'see' the book really clearly in my mind as I read which in no small way is down to the trio of translators who catch the whimsy of the writing so well.