#48, The Little Paris Bookshop, by Nina George

The story of Jean Perdu, who owns a bookshop on a barge in the Seine in Paris, is a romantic fairy tale.  Perdu has spent twenty years grieving for a lost love, to the extent of refusing to open the last letter his lover sent him after she abruptly left him.  It is a story of re-awakening to life.  It is a fairy tale in that no one has to worry about money, and relationships all seem to work out, sex is an expression of true love, etc., etc.  I can see why it was a bestseller for a year in Europe.  In one way, it is a story of hope and of overcoming fear.   However, I feel it is also part of the insidious message that we attain this openness and hope by sleeping with lovely women without committing ourselves to them through marriage.  Again, a fairy tale, not a tru slice-of-life.