The Last Bookshop in London (Review)

 

The Last Bookshop in London--a novel of World War II by Madelaine Martin

Madelaine Martin’s novelistic tribute to the joys of reading will have you stimulated, tearful, and chuckling at various times in its 200 plus pages. Whatever the emotion the focus always settles back on  the heroic Londoners who are experiencing the horrors of the Blitz during World War II.  

Ms. Martin's heroine, Grace Bennett (Yes I did get the little Jane Austen reminder), arrives in London just before the war as a naïve young country girl.  She is eager to make her way, but lacks a needed letter of recommendation. Luckily, her landlady cajoles, Mr. Evans, the owner of the Primrose Hill bookstore, into hiring her and although Grace has never even been a reader, she proves herself as an employee by quickly by setting out to organize and modernize the little bookstore.  A handsome young visitor to the shop recommends that Grace start reading by giving her a copy of The Count of Monte Christo and she does. It sets off a romance with the young man, who becomes a pilot in the RAF, and also begins a reading binge for Grace that carries through to the very end of the book.  

As the bombs begin to fall, Grace reads aloud to people at the bookstore and later she reads to the people gathered the shelters during air raids. She even becomes an air raid warden to “do her part” in the more nasty elements of the bombing. Mr. Evans, the bookstore owner, has seen a mirror of the future in Hitler’s war and his penchant for burning books.  He declares early on that Heinrich Heine’s comment on books needs listening to. “Wherever they burn books, they will ultimately burn people as well.”  

The other characters, from Graces’s more flamboyant friend Viv, her air raid warden partner, and a number of other bookstore owners are neatly developed and individualized.  It is, however, the milieu of the London Blitz itself that grips you most firmly.  It’s noise, blinding smoke, blood, and destruction is true to history as well as relating quite movingly to the current Russian bombing of Ukraine. 

You can also feel Ms. Martin’s own love of the lush and tactile nature of the act of reading itself. The joy and solace of holding and reading a book emanates from almost every page.  I will cite just one of many descriptions of reading from the book. “The jacket was smooth, the print black against a yellow background dotted with small yellow houses. She slid her fingers under the lip and drew the volume open. The spine, not yet stretched, creaked like an ancient door preparing to unveil a secret world.”  If you are already a reader you will love this book and if you aren’t, you may be tempted to check out some of the titles the main character chooses to read.