Juliette leads a narrow and regimented life, escaping it only through reading a wide variety of books that take her anywhere and everywhere.
This self-imposed ennui is almost incomprehensible in an attractive and financially secure young woman living in Paris.
She is bored by her job and her main form of entertainment is people watching on her journey to work.
A sudden impulse to get off the metro before her usual stop leads her into an unexpected adventure that literally changes her life.
Soliman and his daughter Zaide offer Juliette a way out of her comfort zone, helping other people through books.
The story has an Amelie-style quirkiness, which is often charming but at times cloying and self-conscious.
It encompasses a mind-boggling array of books, from many countries and cultures. The tone is occasionally didactic; such when describing the Bookcrossing concept to introduce Soliman’s operation, but this may be a fault of translation.
It is a slight book, set firmly in the present and touching lightly on modern-day issues and problems, but with a timeless quality that is probably the secret of its success.
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