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The Paris Bookshop for the Broken Hearted by Rebecca Raisin #Review

  Welcome to a sparkling read by Rebecca Raisin, The Paris Bookshop for the Broken Hearted was published by Boldwood Books on February 3rd.   Can you ever swear off love, in the city of love?   Coco is having a hell of a month. She’s lost her boyfriend and her business, been forced to uproot her daughter to move back in with her parents in Paris, and now an infuriatingly handsome stranger is yelling at her for acting like a tourist… Right underneath the Eiffel Tower.   Storming away from him – and swearing off men for life – she decides she’s going to take the first job that comes her way. Then, as if fate hears her, later that day she stumbles into a little bookshop – but not any old bookshop. This one comes complete with a café, cocktail bar, reading room and secret tunnel of books, and just a little hint of magic in the air. So when Coco’s offered a job selling books there, it feels like the perfect fit. There’s only one problem… propping up ...
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Fever at Dawn by Péter Gárdos

    Fever at Dawn is based on the true love story of his parents who were both survivors of the Holocaust. As Jewish- Hungarians, they are sent to convalesce after the war in separate hospitals for refugees, in Sweden,  Fresh from Belsen, Miklós is diagnosed with terminal lung disease and given six months to live. He ignores this prognosis and sets out to find a wife by writing to 117 Hungarian strangers who are in temporary hospitals throughout Sweden. Lili, another Belsen survivor, is one of the women who replies to him and their correspondence begins. 

    After his father's death in 1998, Péter Gárdos' mother gave him two bundles of their letters which had been written back in 1945-6. You are always aware when you are reading the book that it is a deeply personal story to the author. An award winning director, he has directed a film version of his novel and there are some strikingly visual scenes within the narrative. He was unaware of how his parents had met up to this point and they had never referred to how they came to survive the concentration camps.  I found the presence of the atrocities which they must have both witnessed ever present, though rarely acknowledged, as it must have been for Miklós and Lili. 
  
    I enjoyed this book very much. It has a poignancy throughout and the strength of character of the survivors shine through. They are so determined to rise above their past and to continue to survive. The novel has been translated from the Hungarian and there is a simplicity to the phrasing which makes it endearing to the reader, with a wry humour expressed. I particularly liked the poems and snatches of the letters which Miklós sent to Lili.

In short: an uplifting love story

Thanks to Alison Barrow of Transworld Publishers who sent me an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
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