What to do? What to do? What to be? After university, New Yorker Sylvia Beach just can’t settle on what she wants to do. Her family encourages her to write, but her muse deserts her. Now, back in Paris which she loved as a teen living there, she shares rooms with her actress sister Cyprian. The trilingual Sylvia is thrilled with the vibrancy and exuberance of the Parisian lifestyle and has found “her heart’s desire”. How can she stay connected to this exciting city with its liberated and openly gay lifestyle?
Sylvia investigates setting up a bookstore of books from France in New York City, so she could have reason to return to Paris and her mother searches for a rental space for her. Unfortunately, the already high rents in the 1920s are skyrocketing along with the growth of the city, so that is out. What can she do?
Then, like a lightning bolt, an idea zaps in her brain! Why not open an American bookstore in Paris filled with English books from England and America! After broaching the idea with her newfound friend Adrienne Monnier, a popular French bookseller, things really begin to click. Adrienne hears of a location for Sylvia’s store not too far from her own store where a laundress retires from the rental she had for decades.
With the help of friends, the newly named Shakespeare & Company moves from idea to reality and soon American ex-pats, authors, and tourists flock to Sylvia’s book store and lending library and an amazing history begins! Starting from her small shop, S & C quickly gained a reputation as a gathering place for the Parisian avant-garde and English-speaking ex-pats to chat about books and writing, to meet other authors such as James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Simone de Beauvoir, F. Scott Fritzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Alice B Toklas and Ernest Hemmingway with Sylvia Beach being a remarkable social influencer and publisher. Her days are full of love and deep friendships as well as more than her fair share of hard work, exhausting days, and betrayals.
Beautifully and elegantly written by Kerri Maher, THE PARIS BOOKERSELLER was released in January 2022 to mark the 100th Anniversary of the publication of James Joyce’s famous book ULYSSES by the brave and remarkable Sylvia Beach in Paris. Despite it being considered to be too obscene by American or other publishing companies, Beach takes up this unique role as she considers ULYSSES to be too important a book that needs to be read by many.
Author of two previous historical novels, including THE KENNEDY DEBUTANTE, Kerri Maher has a lovely talent for giving enough period detail that one feels drawn into the story in an authentic way but does not overwhelm the flow of THE PARIS BOOKERSELLER about Sylvia beach, a remarkable “adventuress” and successful entrepreneur of the famous Shakespeare & Company bookstore.
Make sure to read Maher’s Author’s Notes at the end of THE PARIS BOOKERSELLER with more fascinating details on the story and how she made her decisions about where the line between truth and fiction would meet in her historical novel. Be warned: You may find yourself investigating and checking out more info on the “greats” who found their way to Shakespeare & Company. I definitely want to find out more about the real Sylvia Beach and to read her own account.
If you like historical fiction or are fans of the 1920s-30s or want to read wonderful stories or unusual tidbits about many great writers of the period, you are sure to be impressed with THE PARIS BOOKERSELLER! So, don’t wait – get your copy of Maher’s THE PARIS BOOKERSELLER today! It’s a real keeper!
The dramatic story of how a humble bookseller fought against incredible odds to bring one of the most important books of the 20th century to the world in this new novel from the author of The Girl in White Gloves.
When bookish young American Sylvia Beach opens Shakespeare and Company on a quiet street in Paris in 1919, she has no idea that she and her new bookstore will change the course of literature itself.
Shakespeare and Company is more than a bookstore and lending library: Many of the prominent writers of the Lost Generation, like Ernest Hemingway, consider it a second home. It's where some of the most important literary friendships of the twentieth century are forged—none more so than the one between Irish writer James Joyce and Sylvia herself. When Joyce's controversial novel Ulysses is banned, Beach takes a massive risk and publishes it under the auspices of Shakespeare and Company.
But the success and notoriety of publishing the most infamous and influential book of the century comes with steep costs. The future of her beloved store itself is threatened when Ulysses' success brings other publishers to woo Joyce away. Her most cherished relationships are put to the test as Paris is plunged deeper into the Depression and many expatriate friends return to America. As she faces painful personal and financial crises, Sylvia—a woman who has made it her mission to honor the life-changing impact of books—must decide what Shakespeare and Company truly means to her.
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