The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan

Summary

Nina is a literary matchmaker. Pairing a reader with that perfect book is her passion… and also her job. Or at least it was. Until yesterday, she was a librarian in the hectic city. But now the job she loved is no more.

Determined to make a new life for herself, Nina moves to a sleepy village many miles away. There she buys a van and transforms it into a bookmobile — a mobile bookshop that she drives from neighborhood to neighborhood, changing one life after another with the power of storytelling.

From helping her grumpy landlord deliver a lamb, to sharing picnics with a charming train conductor who serenades her with poetry, Nina discovers there’s plenty of adventure, magic, and soul in a place that’s beginning to feel like home… a place where she just might be able to write her own happy ending.

Comments

Our book club really enjoyed this gentle, easy to read story. The writing was beautifully descriptive and deceptively deep. The characters and environment came to life and we were engaged immediately. The main character, a displaced, big city librarian, creates a mobile bookshop in a van. (She acquired many of the books from library closures.) The books brought joy, anticipation and comfort to the small Scottish towns she visited where library facilities and book shops were unavailable. The books had a positive, uplifting effect on all who came to purchase or just to browse and mingle. Their lives were enriched by what they read and who they met. We are happy to recommend The Bookshop on the Corner.

Read by MJ Readers