Grace is a compelling and well-drawn character, as are all the others in the book. She takes up his suggestion and begins a love affair with books and a close relationship with him. He recommends she read “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexandre Dumas. She also encounters a young man who is a shop regular. She starts by cleaning and bringing order to chaos. Layers of dust cover a vast quantity of books scattered throughout the shop’s shelves and stacked on floors - all without categorization by subject or author. Grace wonders how she is to help customers find anything in this muddle. She is shocked to find the bookshop in complete disarray. Grace crosses the threshold of the bookshop with trepidation. Evans, the proprietor of Primrose Hill Books, to take her on as an assistant for a six-month period so she can obtain a reference. Viv immediately lands a position at Harrods while Grace, lacking a reference, flounders until Mrs. Weatherford where they will room and look for jobs. Together they make their way to the home of Mrs. In contrast, her best friend, Viv, is adventurous, and thrilled to move with her to the big city. This is a cruel blow and a major impediment to finding new employment.ĭespite the looming war, Grace feels she must leave the relative safety of the countryside and move to London to seek employment. To make Grace’s misery complete, the uncle dismisses her from her job in his shop, and without a reference.
When we first meet her in 1939 she has just buried her mum - her last close family member - and been displaced from her family home in the English countryside by a hateful uncle and his harridan of a wife. The core story revolves around a young woman named Grace Bennett. The war and its impact on London is the well-told big picture. This book is a big picture and small picture novel. It puts the reader on the front lines with ordinary citizens as they cope with unremitting bombing, forced sheltering in desolate conditions, death and destruction, rationing and the fear of a Nazi invasion.
“The Last Bookshop in London” paints an immersive picture of life in London during the war years, especially in the horrific period known as the Blitz (Sept. Hanover Square Press, 228 pages, $16.99 paperbackīest-selling Jacksonville author Madeline Martin gives us an enthralling historical novel set in London during World War II. "The Last Bookshop in London: A Novel of World War II"
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