Ivan «Van» Georg, antiguo vendedor de cómics, y la estilosa y seductora Francesca Aldo-Valbelli se juntan para llevar a cabo el sueño de sus vidas: montar una librería que solo venda obras maestras, seleccionadas por un comité secreto de ocho respetables escritores que se esconden bajo seudónimo. Cuando la librería abre, inmediatamente empieza a cosechar un éxito arrollador. ¿Quiénes son esos elitistas y cómo osan decirles a los lectores lo que han de leer? La blogosfera hierve, Internet crepita. Decenas de competidores nacen de la noche a la mañana, clamando por los ideales seudoigualitarios. Ivan y Francesca, estoicamente, intentan aguantar el chaparrón hasta que, de repente, tres de los miembros de su comité secreto son víctimas de accidentes que a punto están de costarles la vida.

Not a satisfying read. It started out as a mystery,then the author goes back in time to give the history leading up to the beginning events. But the history takes most of the rest of the book and the

mystery is never really resolved properly. From the beginning chapters, I thought I was reading a "whodunit" but the author never really reveals who did it. Some of the relationship threads in the book aren't wrapped up properly either. The narrator's tone doesn't seem to match the portrayal of that

character in the book. The identity of the narrator is hidden until the end of the book so at least the answer to that mystery was revealed but it didn't quite make sense. I kept reading it, hoping that the author would wrap things up in the end but he never did. ( )

In some ways, this was the perfect book for me: a mystery novel about voracious readers opening a bookstore in Paris. My dream come true. And I enjoyed reading it immensely -- until the last couple chapters when it came time to wrap up the mystery. It felt like Cosse was just in a rush to end the book without much resolution, resulting in a disappointing ending. ( )

Une idée intéressante, élaborée de manière parfois surdétaillée. ( )

With a slow and confusing start, this novel could easily be shelved, but hang in there, it gets great! Two lovers of great literature meet in a tiny, obscure bookstore in the French Alps and decide to open a bookstore in Paris called The Good Novel. They recruit an anonymous committee of eight authors to recommend six hundred books each for the store's inventory. After a successful opening, the local literati are either thrilled or dismayed to have their works included or ignored, and three members of the committee are subsequently almost murdered. Van and Francesca are the owners, and their closeness is tested by a series of attacks on The Good Novel, by Van's crush on a younger woman, and by Francesca's loss of her daughter to suicide and by the lack of support from her husband. The numerous French authors and their books praised here will be mostly unknown to American readers, but there's the internet to use for searching for the novels in translation, and you can let the booksellers’ reverence for Cormac McCarthy be your guide to their preferences. There's so much to enjoy here, and Francesca is a uniquely memorable woman.

Quotes: "In the old days when a fellow didn't get up in the morning, it would be common knowledge by noon in the ten nearest houses."

"What I have to offer is not substantial enough for a woman to imagine she could do something with it."

"Love at first sight, serenades, trills, and cooing. And then I get completely fed up, it's my fault, full speed reverse." ( )