Coming in March - The Bookseller

 

 

I don't know any bona fide reader who can resist a book entitled "The Bookseller," so when the publisher offered an early look, I jumped at the chance. I'm so sorry to tell you that I failed to realize just how early a look it was. Put a note on your calendar, do whatever you do when you're making your booklists, but don't miss Cynthia Swanson's debut novel when it is released next March.

 

When you read as many reviews as I do your eyes often begin to glaze over. It seems that there's a dearth of creativity and imagination when it comes to fiction lately. I'll often find myself saying, "not this worn out story again!" But Ms. Swanson, who has been awarded a Pushcart Prize for her short stories, broke the spell with this highly imaginative novel about a woman living in two worlds.

 

Kitty and Frieda have been best friends forever. They operate a struggling bookstore in Denver called Sisters, a moniker that reflects the strong connection between them. It's the '60's, try to remember those times if you can, and two women, happily single, surrounded by books and cats, and running a business, is still an anomaly.

 

 Frieda nurses a lingering resentment that her dad had to co-sign their business loan, and worries mightily about how they will keep the business afloat without an influx of money or a risky move out to the suburbs where things called shopping malls are opening up and stealing customers from downtown businesses.

 

Kitty, on the other hand, wonders if her very supportive parents secretly regret that she didn't marry young and provide them with the requisite two or three grandchildren. Why else would she be having such vivid dreams about a picture-perfect husband and a challenging set of triplets? Could this staid woman in the twinset and pearls actually be her alter-ego? Is this the person she'd have become if she hadn't chosen the freewheeling gypsy life of a bookseller? Or, are Kitty and Frieda two sides of the same coin?

 

Cynthia Swanson may be an artist by trade but she's a writer at heart. This refreshingly original novel examines women on the cusp of a movement where choices open up that were never there before. Yet, we know that for every action there is a reaction, choices have consequences. The psychology behind how we cope with those consequences is reflected in Kitty's dream world. Or is it?

 

This is a poignant, thoughtful novel about family, friendship, and the vagaries of life with all its joy and heartbreak.