Kitty Miller never expected to be 38 years old and
single, but she's become accustomed to her life. She runs
a bookstore with her best friend, Frieda Green, and has
her own apartment with her cat, Aslan. However, nightly
dreams about a different life are blurring the lines of
reality for Kitty. At night, Kitty is Katharyn and she's
married to Lars Andersson and a mother. Which world is
reality and which one is just her imagination?
I love the concept of "what if" stories, where we travel
the road not taken to see what could have happened.
Cynthia Swanson offers the reader a very clear picture of
the sharp contrasts between Kitty and Katharyn's lives
during the early 1960s. I like that Cynthia Swanson is
willing to tackle some sensitive topics within the "what
if" scenario, including autism and sexuality, but it's a
bit difficult to read without anger considering the
context of the time period.
The title of THE BOOKSELLER is a bit misleading as the
story is more about one woman's journey and what choices
she made- or didn't make- at the crucial moments. I
wanted to like THE BOOKSELLER better than I did as I love
when worlds blur and the reader has to determine what is
fiction and what is reality. Unfortunately, the execution
of THE BOOKSELLER includes far too many detailed
descriptions of the minutiae for me to fully love the
story.
Readers of women's fiction who enjoy a slower paced story
will probably appreciate THE BOOKSELLER. Cynthia Swanson
does a great job at evoking emotions from the reader as
she draws the reader into her world. While the THE
BOOKSELLER is not to my taste, I can easily see it as a
great selection for a book club.
A provocative and hauntingly powerful debut novel
reminiscent of Sliding Doors, The Bookseller
follows a woman in the 1960s who must reconcile her
reality with the tantalizing alternate world of her
dreams.
Nothing is as permanent as it appears . .
.
Denver, 1962: Kitty Miller has come to terms
with her unconventional single life. She loves the bookshop
she runs with her best friend, Frieda, and enjoys complete
control over her day-to-day existence. She can come and go
as she pleases, answering to no one. There was a man once, a
doctor named Kevin, but it didn’t quite work out the way
Kitty had hoped.
Then the dreams begin.
Denver,
1963: Katharyn Andersson is married to Lars, the love of her
life. They have beautiful children, an elegant home, and
good friends. It’s everything Kitty Miller once believed she
wanted—but it only exists when she sleeps.
Convinced
that these dreams are simply due to her overactive
imagination, Kitty enjoys her nighttime forays into this
alternate world. But with each visit, the more irresistibly
real Katharyn’s life becomes. Can she choose which life she
wants? If so, what is the cost of staying Kitty, or becoming
Katharyn?
As the lines between her worlds begin to
blur, Kitty must figure out what is real and what is
imagined. And how do we know where that boundary lies in our
own lives?
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