Author: Barbara Davis
The Echo of Old Books is a wonderful story of love, betrayal, and history. We meet a bookshop owner who can feel the emotions of people who owned books before her, and who then goes on a quest to read two unpublished books written by two lovers to one another. These two stories take us to ‘his’ and ‘hers’ story of the same event, in the manner only David Nicholls can normally execute, but Barbara Davis does it differently, in an equally inspiring and thoughtful way. The story of two lovers is a story of breakup and hurt. We know that from the start, and the story takes us to 1940s New York and high society where a heiress celebrates her engagement to a suitable mate, and on the same evening, meets a British journalist and falls in love.
The story then evolves around two lovers, how they got together, how the love story evolved, and we can’t wait to learn what happened that set the two lovers apart. Equally, we also learn the life story of the bookshop owner, and the book is beautifully intertwined with three stories: the story of bookshop owner Ashley, the story of Belle (a nickname for the heiress), and the story of Hemi (a nickname for the British journalist). Two lovers gave these nicknames to each other, and we learn theirs through identities towards the end of the book, as well as the epilogue and the aftermath, providing further details on what happened. We also get a closure thanks to Ashley’s ability to feel emotions from books and her realization that both lovers feel wronged by the other one…
I enjoyed enormously references to New York society and expected behaviours, and references to fashion, so this book will also contribute to my research. The latter was surprising because whilst I do read novels that tackle New York society and fashion in the everyday, I did not read this book for that reason. I simply like reading books about books, so the society and fashion element pleasantly surprised me, and I have 5 pages of notes for my research, which is always a bonus.
The Echo of Old Books is a beautiful book, and I enjoyed it so much that I savoured it. I simply could not read it in one go because whilst I wanted to know what happened, I also did not want the book to finish.
Astonishing! Beautiful! Inspiring!
Thank you for reading!