The Little Village of Book Lovers

Title:  The Little Village of Book Lovers

Author:  Nina George

Publication Information:  Ballantine Books. 2023. 272 pages.

ISBN:  0593157885 / 978-0593157886

Rating:   ★★★

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "'What do you do when you can't go on, Monsieur Perdu?' Jordan asked wearily."

Favorite Quote:  "It is you who make love visible in everything you think and say, everything you do or choose not to."

This book is in one word - silly. Love is a character. An olive tree is a character. A young woman, Marie-Jeanne, has the power to see and make connections between people. She can do so for everyone but herself. Her foster father dotes on her. Her foster mother is so afraid to show her love that every action reveals itself as anger or disdain.

However, somedays in a world full of anger and sadness, a silly, feel good story is just what is needed. When that story is also a love letter to books and libraries (even a small mobile one), it has its redeeming qualities:

• "... books are precisely where magic, the great wide world, miracles, and good explanation may all converge? Are books not the last remaining place for otherwise inconceivable encounters between different people, different periods, different landscapes, and different emotions?"
• "Books are the poetry of the impossible."
• "Because freedom ... begins where you first overstep your boundaries."
• "And nothing - I repeat, nothing - is a more discreet and incorruptible accomplice than literature."
• "Books at least made you think things over ... Book thinking was, um, flightier. I turned ordinary thoughts into buzzards."
• "Books are the last alchemy of our age. They make anything possible. Anything."

Set against the beautiful backdrop of southern France in a small village, this book has many characters and many repeating refrains. Sometimes, it is challenging to follow the different love stories in the making. Distinguishing between the human and the non-human characters adds another element of challenge. Eventually, I stop following the individual stories but rather follow the main theme of the book. So many people do not find love even when it might be nearby. Perhaps, "it" does not look like what they imagined. Perhaps, they don't feel lovable or deserving of "it." Perhaps, "it" is not what they have been taught they need and should want. 

The One by John Marrs takes a sci-fi look at the topic of identifying soulmates. The Matchmaker's Gift by Lynda Cohen Loigman makes it a natural gift in the hands of an individual who then turns it into a career. This book places that power in the hands of an individual because she is touched by "Love", an entity with an existence all its own. Other books have had other variations on this theme. Skimming through, this telling is a light-hearted, fluffy summer read.

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