Chapter 29 The Forbidden Bookshop
The Forbidden Bookshop
One year later
Since opening her restaurant, Anna has been working harder than ever, and her dining room is always full.
Mitch has expanded his shop, and once again hosts book club meetings in the cellar, led by Madame Ateltow.
Every week, they invite writers whose works had once been banned to come and speak.
Madame Ateltow now lives with Verner, she’s taken up tango as well, and she visits her son in prison once a week.
Madame Bergol comes to the bookshop every Tuesday at eleven o’clock on the dot, where she picks out the book she will read that week, all by herself.
One Tuesday in autumn, she arrived a few minutes late.
“Is that book in the window any good?” she asked, by way of greeting.
“Which one?” inquired Mitch, who’d been waiting for her.
“The Forbidden Bookshop. I saw some people reading it on the bus. Even my neighbour has a copy. What’s it about?”
“Oh,” Mitch replied with a knowing smile. “It’s about a man and the woman he loves finding a way to take their revenge on the person who had him wrongly convicted and sent to prison.”
“How?”
“By getting him convicted in turn – for a crime he kind of committed.”
“‘Kind of’?”
“Yeah, kind of… It’s a long story. I highly recommend it.”