Found in a Bookshop (by Stephanie Butland)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s over five years since I read Stephanie Butland’s novel ‘Lost for Words’. I had no idea what to expect, but liked it very much. So when a Facebook friend mentioned that she had just read a sequel, ‘Found in a Bookshop’, I went straight to Amazon, intending to add it to my wishlist. But the Kindle edition was available for just 99p, and we were just a few days away from flying to the UK. So I made the purchase, and then read over half the book on the flight, finishing it a few days later. 

Although this book features some of the same characters as ‘Lost for Words’, including Loveday as a viewpoint character, it stands alone. Just as well, since I’d forgotten the majority of the plot in the past five years. Loveday owns the bookshop where she has worked for years, and employs a young woman called Kelly.

This is probably the first book I’ve read that’s set during the Covid19 pandemic years. There are many references made to lockdowns, and the problems small shops experienced when customers could no longer visit or browse their shelves. As such, it’s the kind of book that will be considered ‘social history’ in the future; having lived through it myself, albeit in a different country (and not a shop owner), I felt it was accurate, reflecting how ordinary people coped - or didn’t cope. There are some losses of significant people due to Covid, which is also realistic.

But the main plot is about how the bookshop is going to survive, and whether Kelly will lose her job. Loveday is quite concerned at the start of the book. She also misses the camaraderie of her staff and regular customers. They already have some mail order customers, and Kelly proposes updating the website, and using social media, although Loveday is a bit reluctant. Kelly also comes up with the idea of a ‘book pharmacy’, prescribing books to help people as they deal with problems, whether or not related to the pandemic.

There are a lot of minor characters in this, some of them appearing in just one short section as they get in touch to ask for advice; we see the emails or letters, and also the responses. It could have felt a bit contrived, as so many books are listed and recommended, but somehow it works. I gave up trying to keep track of all the people, and it didn’t much matter; the important ones appear again and it isn’t hard to recall who they are. As the book progresses, so does the gradual release of lockdown rules. 

There are quite a few issues covered, and it’s quite clever the way that they’re introduced via the ‘book pharmacy’. For instance there’s an elderly couple, retired from teaching, one of them terminally ill. There’s also a family where the father is a paramedic who decides to isolate from his wife and children. There’s a woman who’s just escaped from an abusive husband…and there’s a moody teenager who takes what seems to be an irrational dislike to Kelly. 

While a tad informal, I thought the writing very good, as is the characterisation even with so many people. I was a bit surprised at what appear to be authorial asides about books and reading, but it works - as do the short chapters and the book recommendations. Most of the threads are tied up nicely by the end, albeit with some difficult, sometimes tragic events along the way. 

I suppose it’s ironic that I read this on my Kindle, since the emphasis is very much on reading real books - mostly second-hand, previously loved, with the different smells and feelings associated with different styles of book. But it worked very well as a flight book - it’s an engaging story with people who got under my skin. Yet with the short chapters I could easily put it down if I needed a break, or something to eat. 

I would recommend this if you like issue-laden contemporary women’s fiction and don’t mind a large number of book recommendations. Probably best if you’ve already read ‘Lost for Words’, but it’s not necessary.  

(The Kindle version is no longer on special offer, so the Amazon link above is to the paperback edition of this book).

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