Can books restore your faith in humanity? Can they help you to uncover your own sense of self? These are questions Nina George explores in The Little Paris Bookshop, an immensely popular book in Europe, which is beginning to pick up speed here in the US. The story follows the book apothecary, Perdu, as he travels across France on his bookstore barge prescribing books as remedies to life’s emotional stressors. As he travels down the Seine, he encounters colorful characters who begin to drawn him out from his own emotional trauma which he has been hiding behind for many years. Undoubtedly, this is an intriguing premise, but I struggled with the book due to various technical flaws. Finally, when the all-important decision came – how will I rate it on Goodreads? – I found myself at a loss to evaluate my own opinions of the book:

Con: The translation from German to English. While I can’t compare the English version to the original, I can say that some clarity seems to have been lost. It often felt like the translation was taken too literally, working against typical English language structures. Also, there is no reason why the word “crikey” should appear so many times in a German book written about France!

Pro: George makes you feel like you’re there, floating on the bookstore barge with Perdu across France. It’s heaven for anyone who loves the film Chocolat (or at least the part with Johnny Depp on a boat). It’s as if you can smell the lavender in Provence and feel the ocean waves of Sanary-sur-Mer wash over your skin.

Con: There are far too many coincidences for this story to be believable. From happening upon a secret tango club, to Perdu also happening to be fabulous at tango dancing, to happening upon his favorite author in a town that is happening to be having a literary cosplay convention, it all gets a little wild.

Pro: If you suspend your disbelief, these happenings are all charming.

Con: The story is a little too sentimental and a lot too hung up on the idea that romantic love is the only way to be happy in life. I love a good love story myself, but believe there are other ways for a character to reach self-actualization.

Pro: If you accept that everyone in the story should be paired off (and it’s more fun if you do), then you’ll find that the book has a great deal to share about love, loss, joy and grief. The pages are filled with emotional truths.

Con: Perhaps it’s my American sensibilities, but I find a moral dilemma with having a female lead who has an intense love affair with the hero of the story (Perdu), but is also deeply in love with her husband (Luc). She refuses to give either up, but also expects that neither will cheat on her. Poor Luc…

Pro: The book exposes you to a different way of thinking about love and helped me to better understand a more European perspective on not just love, but also on books, food and Parisian life in general.

Con: The concept of the book apothecary could have been pushed farther. George often seemed to rely on prescribing her own favorite books, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I would have enjoyed to see a larger range of reading material referenced.

Pro: I really want to eat lavender ice cream with honey sauce and the book provides a recipe!

In the end, I blandly decided to give The Little Paris Bookshop three stars and hope that it really is much better in German. If you can get past a distracting translation and suspend your disbelief from the more incredible aspects of the story, the narrative underneath is captivating and heartwarming. In it, George asks the question, can books revitalize the soul? Her answer is “no” and her prescription for soul revitalization is living life to the fullest. Still, it’s nice to have an enjoyable read to offer perspective and pull you out of life’s smaller troubles.