the printed letter bookshop by katherine reay

I'd love to talk to Madeline, Claire, and Janet individually and before coming home together. This novel is a love letter to books but it is also a love letter in celebration of the friendship of women. There is a beauty and love unlike any other when women with different backgrounds, different ages, different life perspectives, and at different points in their lives find friendship together. Aunt Maddie leaves separate envelopes for Madeline, Claire, and Janet with 'a short note, a long list of books, and a quotation from the book of Proverbs in the Bible.' Is this a beginning or an ending? How can they possibly think of the potential sale and/or closure of the shop in the midst of their grief in the loss of their friend Maddie. She's stunned at the contents of her aunt's will and especially the burden of not only a home but the bookshop that must be sold as her aunt died in debt.ĭid I mention I loved this book? Sale of the bookstore will impact Claire and Janet the most as they comprise the staff at the bookshop and the bookshop plays a significant part in each of their lives.

Maddie's niece, Madeline, an attorney in Chicago is working tirelessly especially as she's competing with a coworker and ex-boyfriend for a partnership in the law firm. 'It’s more intimate, more friendly and communal,' Aunt Maddie said.'īut now family, friends, and the community of Winsome are mourning Maddie's death. 'That’s what they called it, a bookshop, not a bookstore. Madeline (Maddie for short) Cullen Carter and her husband Pete were owners of 'The Printed Letter Bookshop' and Maddie continued her ownership of the bookshop even after she became too ill to even visit the shop. 'That’s what books do, Maddie used to say they are a conversation, and introduce us to ourselves and to others.' Has she been too quick to dismiss her aunt's beloved shop? And even if she has, the women's best combined efforts may be too little, too late. When Madeline's professional life falls apart, and a handsome gardener upends all her preconceived notions, she questions her plans and her heart. Claire, though quieter than the acerbic Janet, feels equally drawn to the daily rhythms of the shop and its loyal clientele, finding a renewed purpose within its walls. Reeling from a recent divorce, Janet finds sanctuary within the books and within the decadent window displays she creates. While Madeline intends to sell the shop as quickly as possible, the Printed Letter's two employees have other ideas. But by the time Madeline inherits the shop nearly twenty years later, family troubles and her own bitter losses have hardened Madeline's heart toward her once-treasured aunt-and the now struggling bookshop left in her care.

Love, friendship, and family find a home at the Printed Letter Bookshop One of Madeline Cullen's happiest childhood memories is of working with her Aunt Maddie in the quaint and cozy Printed Letter Bookshop.

The printed letter bookshop by katherine reay