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 didnβt 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. Itβs everything Kitty Miller once believed she
wantedβbut 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 Katharynβs 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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