The Bookshop

The Bookshop

Rating

8.5

The Pequod Review:

Set in 1950s Suffolk, Penelope Fitzgerald's The Bookshop follows the trials and tribulations of a naive middle-aged widow who decides to open a small-town bookshop. (“She had a kind heart, though that is not of much use when it comes to the matter of self-preservation.”) The book is deceptively intelligent about the impersonal forces of capitalism and the political savviness required of small business owners, as well as the intellectual hierarchy of the bookstore’s customers.