The Lost Bookshop

“He always said that books were more than words on paper; they were portals to other places, other lives. I fell in love with books and the vast worlds they held inside, and I owed it all to my father.”

Opaline recalls her father’s emphasis on books and reading when she was a child. She attributes her love of books to him, a character trait that propels her into her career as a book dealer and influences many of her personal relationships. This thematically embodies The Power of Books.

“[H]ow many paperbacks, manuscripts, handwritten drafts have been lost or forgotten throughout history? The number is infinite. How many forgotten libraries remain hidden […] Who is to say what treasures are yet to be rediscovered, what lost things are waiting to be brought to light?”

Henry reflects on the human fascination with lost books and manuscripts. This is not only the topic of his thesis but also his personal obsession. The idea of lost and found objects recurs throughout the novel.

“I had spent years looking for the one, the big discovery that would make my name in the world of rare books, and this was the closest I had ever come. […] Motivation comes in all shapes and sizes and my motivation for staying in Ireland was to avoid looking like a complete failure. That was what everyone expected—including me. If no one takes you seriously, how can you ever hope to do so yourself?”

Henry is desperate for belonging and recognition. He’s motivated to find the lost Brontë manuscript not only because he loves books but also because he believes the fame and recognition of this discovery will heal the disappointment and feelings of failure he receives from his father.

“I realised then it was exactly what I needed, for I was still in shock. Unlike the movies, you don’t just leave your home, your marriage and everything you knew and simply start a new life. There is a bit in between where you’re just breathing—like a drowning man who clings to a rock. You know you’re alive, you can move, even speak, but something is missing.”

Martha has only recently escaped her husband’s abuse and views her time working for Madame Bowden as part of her healing process. She depicts the realistic fallout of such trauma and explains that one doesn’t bounce back immediately but needs a period of rest and recovery.

“Because now, I didn’t think I deserved any better than this. A battered face, a broken marriage and a job cleaning someone else’s beautiful home. I knew I didn’t deserve better, but somewhere inside, I still hoped. That’s what was making me miserable: the hoping. I realised then that I would have to give up one or the other, happiness or hope.”

Martha once believed she was intended for a larger purpose, that she had special talents and a destiny. However, Shane crushed that feeling within her. This passage relates thematically to The Search for Purpose and Belonging and explains why Martha is paralyzed in that search.

“I reached inside my satchel and rested my hand on the Baudelaire. Even feeling the book under my fingertips calmed me. I couldn’t explain it, not even to myself, but books gave me an unflinching sense of stability and groundedness. That because words survived, somehow I would too.”

This passage thematically alludes to one aspect of The Power of Books: their ability to provide comfort and solace. Opaline gains a sense of support not only from reading the contents of a book but from its mere physical presence as well. This passage also highlights her resilience and her belief that she can survive, just like the words on the page.

“One of the guests arrived late and she was very shaken indeed. As she warmed her posterior by the fire, she told us of how she had got out of the taxi and walked into what she thought was our house. But when she got inside, she realised that it was a bookshop—a small, old-fashioned little place, full of charming old books and knick-knacks. Anyway, she came back out on to the street, turned around, and poof! The shop was gone and there was my front door again.”

Madame Bowden shares a story with Martha about someone’s experience with the mysterious disappearing bookshop. This scene implies that Madame Bowden knows more than she’s letting on. It also demonstrates the unexplainable character of the novel’s elements of magical realism.

“I woke in the middle of the night with another line from the story in my head. Like a notification in my inbox, they came to me like that sometimes, whispered into my subconscious mind. I had no explanation for it. I only knew that I had to hold on to them somehow. Writing the words down on paper wasn’t enough. So the following day I would go to the local tattoo parlour and have them inked on my back.”

The story and the tattoo on Martha’s back are an important aspect of her character, and they eventually connect her to Opaline’s parallel storyline and her own lineage. In addition, they’re an example of the novel’s use of magical realism, in which the supernatural and unexplained penetrate into the realm of the normal and mundane.

“‘I wanted to show you that anything is possible.’ He stepped out of the way of a group of American students, noisily making their way past. Then he stepped back a little closer to me, so I could feel his breath. ‘After that day in the library, I could see you wanted to belong. And I just wanted to show you that you do.’

I stopped hearing the people around us, barely even noticed them filing past. No one had ever seen me the way he just had. And even if they did, they certainly didn’t do anything to try and help me.”

This scene explicitly connects thematically to The Search for Purpose and Belonging. Henry wants Martha to know that she belongs, and she feels that belonging because Henry makes her feel seen. It also hints at the romantic elements to come and the concept of seeing clearly with love.

“I climbed the stairs, reading the words that Mr Fitzpatrick painted there, In a place called lost, strange things are found. I certainly felt strange and out of place.”

The original owner of the building that Opaline turns into her bookshop painted these words on the stairs himself. The words resonate with Opaline and make her feel at home. The idea of being lost and found thematically connects to The Search for Purpose and Belonging.

“I had a quick scan through his Dickens collection, just in case my father’s copy of David Copperfield was among them. It had become a little habit of mine, a way of keeping him close to my heart. It was a rare edition, and I could tell with a glance that it wasn’t there. No matter, I said to myself. I will find it one day.”

As with her search for Brontë’s lost manuscript, Opaline’s efforts to look for her father’s book, a first-edition copy of David Copperfield, is one of the things that motivates her and drives her forward. Her story comes full circle when Josef returns with this precise book in his hands as a gift he knows she’ll treasure.

“She asked, ‘what is something you create, even if you do nothing?’ The answer was a choice. Choosing not to do something was still a choice.

I was choosing not to register for college because I was too scared. What I hadn’t realised was that I was actively choosing to stay stuck where I was, which scared me even more.”

The importance of making choices appears in several places in the novel. Martha is forced to confront the ways she allows herself to remain stuck and paralyzed because she’s afraid of making a decision that she’ll later regret. She finally understands that choosing not to choose is still a kind of choice.

“Yet, as I had realised in Sotheby’s, he was cut from the same cloth as Rosenbach. Ruthless, single-minded and greedy. When it came to books, perhaps I was too, because in that moment I realised that while there may be honour amongst thieves, the same could not be said for book dealers. […] I stayed true to my word and told Armand nothing of my detective work regarding Emily Brontë’s second novel. I made a decision that morning that I would stand by for the rest of my life: the work would always come first.”

This passage is important because Opaline comes to several realizations. In comparing Armand’s behavior with Mr. Rosenbach’s, she starts to realize the true cutthroat nature beneath Armand’s charm. She decides to put her work above all else, including love.

“Only now I could hear another sound. I shuffled over to one of the walls and, feeling a little foolish, put my ear to it. A soft creaking, like the boughs of a tree bending slightly in the breeze. I smiled to myself and often fell asleep like that, cradled in the corner of the dark green walls, wooden shelves with fluttering book leaves shimmering overhead.”

Opaline’s experience hearing branches and leaves rustling echoes Martha’s experience of tree roots growing in her apartment. This image of a tree growing through the building, burying roots into the walls, symbolizes the connection between the two characters across time. This connection is reinforced as the story progresses.

“‘I’m glad he’s dead,’ she said.

I turned around to see my mother standing there in her old dressing gown, her arms wrapped tightly around herself. These were the first words I had ever heard her speak. Rusty and half-whispered, they confirmed what I had suspected all along—she had silenced herself. But why? That was when all of the unshed tears released from within me and we held each other for the longest time.”

In Martha’s entire life, her mother has never spoken until this very moment. This scene is therefore significant, a moment when Martha’s strength in escaping Shane inspires courage in her own mother. This is also a moment of connection and love that later expands when Martha’s mother visits her at Madame Bowden’s house.

“I have devoted an entire lifetime to escaping the confines of this wretched place, only to find myself further entangled in its gnarled roots and oppressed by its looming towers. I am now satisfied that no one born on this land can wipe the dust of it from one’s heels.”

This quote from the lost Brontë manuscript that Opaline finds mirrors some of the other aspects of the novel. Like the unnamed narrator of the manuscript, Opaline and Martha have both devoted their lives to escaping their pasts. Moreover, this passage again invokes the image of roots, just like the tree roots in Martha’s apartment.

“That was when it happened: in the golden glow of the window, all of the words came rushing to me. I could see them in my mind’s eye—the smallest handwriting, neat like stitching in dark thread. All of the words, lines and lines of a strangely dark story pouring into my mind. I could hardly catch my breath. I was so excited I ran as fast as I could in the direction of the tattoo parlour.”

This passage, just pages after Opaline finds and reads the Brontë manuscript, echoes the description of the handwriting and provides a clue about the source of the mysterious story in Martha’s head. The implication is that they’re one and the same, though this suspicion isn’t confirmed until many chapters later.

“Where the light pendant used to be, at the centre of the room, were now roots. A knot of tiny tendrils was growing out of the hole in the ceiling, like a chandelier. I stared at them for a while, until all I could see was their intricate beauty. Each root was made up of tiny, smaller roots, which broke into smaller roots again. All playing a vital role. Suspended, they seemed to search the air for something of value to nourish them. I wanted to reach out and touch them.”

This passage again depicts the roots and branches in Martha’s apartment, embodying her growing connection to Opaline. In addition, it portrays Martha’s search for belonging and connection, as the roots reach out for something that will give them support and nourishment.

“I don’t just love her for how she makes me feel, I love her because when she came into my life it was like the lights came on. Everything suddenly had meaning and I think, I hope, it was the same for her. We all have crap parts and good parts inside, but when you meet someone who makes you realise that it’s all okay, you think, what in God’s name did I do to deserve it? All of my life I’ve been searching for hidden treasure, fortunes outside of myself. But Martha, she found them in me. I’m not perfect, by any means, but I know I want to spend the rest of my life making her smile. So I’m damned if I will let her go without a fight.”

Henry’s speech to Madame Bowden in defense of his feelings for Martha is a powerful statement of love. His words portray what real love should feel and look like, contrasting with the words and behavior of the other men in the story, including Shane, Armand, and Henry’s own father. This scene is thematically important to The Human Need for Love.

“I noticed more books lying flat on the branch that had flattened out as a shelf. The words emblazoned on their spines were almost golden in the lamplight. Dear Reader by Cathy Rentzenbrink, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews. […] My curiosity wouldn’t let me be and I looked up again, only this time, certain words seemed to stand out more than others.

Dear Reader

Go

In the Attic”

This passage highlights the strange magical qualities of the building, reinforcing the story’s place in the magical realism tradition. Martha realizes that the building is trying to speak to her through the books it leaves for her. Importantly, she doesn’t question this but simply follows the directions. This too reflects the tradition of magical realism: Characters tend to accept or innately understand it, suspending the need for conventional logic.

“I recalled something Lucinda had said to me before I left; that it didn’t matter whether the decision you made was right or wrong, as long as you made it. That’s what moved you along in life.”

Recalling Martha’s earlier reflection on making choices, and being paralyzed by indecision, Henry also must learn to make decisions and stand by them. His sister’s advice rings true to him and helps inspire him to face Martha and his own feelings.

“‘No, it’s more than that. It’s about adding to our knowledge of history, rediscovering lost treasures so we can study them and, well, it’s our cultural inheritance. It belongs to us.’

‘But why should you get to decide what gets found and what remains lost?’”

Once again, the idea of lost and found objects appears. Martha directly challenges Henry’s assertion that lost things are meant to be found, thus implying that lost things decide for themselves when and if they’ll be found. In this way, lost things become found when they find a place they belong.

“[T]he reassuring presence of my books around me. Perhaps I imagined it, but I thought I could hear a soft wind and gentle pats, like snow falling against the window. In the gloom I spotted a book with Little Women on the spine. I closed my eyes and I was in Concord with Jo Marsh [sic] and her family and even the thought of it brought warmth to my skin. The words were working a magic spell to give me refuge and reawaken my soul—to the person I was before all the badness happened.”

Opaline finds comfort and solace in the presence of her books and in thinking about books she has previously read. This again thematically reflects The Power of Books in people’s lives. Opaline’s love for books has been a source of comfort and inspiration and is part of what gives her resilience through her traumatic experiences.