From international bestselling author Cristina Caboni comes an exquisite and engrossing novel of two women, centuries apart, bound by a love of books and a longing for self-discovery.With her delicate touch, Sofia Bauer restores books to their original splendor. In this art she finds refuge from her crumbling marriage and the feeling that her once-vibrant life is slipping away. Then an antique … Then an antique German edition takes her breath away. Slipped covertly into the endpapers is an intriguing missive, the first part of a secret…from one bookbinder to another.
Two hundred years ago, Clarice von Harmel defied the constraints of family and society to engage in a profession forbidden to women. Within three separate volumes, Clarice bound her own hidden story filled with pain, longing, and love beyond all reason. A confession that now crosses centuries to touch the heart of a stranger.
With the help of book collector Tomaso Leoni, Sofia connects the threads of Clarice’s past, page by page, line by line, town by town. She’s determined to make Clarice’s voice heard. With each new revelation, Clarice is giving Sofia the courage to find her own voice and hope for the future she thought was lost.
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Every now and then, you happen upon a book that charms, enchants and entices. It fills you with hope, and when you turn the last page your soul feels renewed. For me, this is one of those books.
In present day Rome, Sofia Bauer is restless. She chafes under the bonds of her marriage to a man who is distant and disinterested. She wants if not more, then something different. Something that engages her mind as well as her heart. While visiting a local bookshop, she is given a tattered copy of a first edition book by Romantic author Christian Phillip Fohr. Intrigued, she takes it home to restore it using her skills as a bookbinder. Within the end papers of the book she finds a letter written two centuries ago by another bookbinder. A woman named Clarice von Harmel.
In the early decades of the 1800s and orphaned Clarice von Harmel goes to Vienna to live with her aunt and uncle. Her life in her new home is tumultuous, and one evening when locked in the cellar she discovers a door in the basement. The door leads to a bookbinding shop where she takes refuge and learns the skills to become a bookbinder herself. This is a dangerous time for a woman to step out of her assigned roles and wife and keeper of the home, but Clarice has intelligence and courage.
The story unfolds as Sofia tries to track down the other books in which Clarice hid the letters that tell her story. She enlists the aid of Tomas Leoni, a graphologist and antique book expert and in the course of their exploration they uncover two love stories. Clarice and Christian, and their own.
At times, the plot becomes simplistic. Finding the books, and the ending to Clarice and Christian’s story, could be viewed as too easy. But this is not a deep, twisty book with secrets and danger lurking around every corner. It is a straightforward, gentle journey that brings two people together. It is as much romance as it is timeslip. It is the story of two women who find their voice and their freedom by leaving behind the men who hold them back. Each page folds back parts of each woman’s thoughts and hopes, her determination and eagerness to embrace both independence and completeness with the ones they love.
The only part of the book I objected to is the way the author uses the word ‘dominate’ (dominance.) What Clarice’s husband, August, does to her is not dominance. It is abuse. Dominance requires an exchange of power and a willing partner. Abuse is inflicted on the unwilling who have no choice. August was a wife-beater, plain and simple, who enjoyed the pain he inflicted on others. The misuse of this word does not in anyway detract from the enjoyment of the book. I’m just nitpicky about words.
This book left me with such a feeling of goodwill and happiness. I thoroughly enjoyed the way the pieces fell into place, and the happiness both women found. There are trials and missteps, but overall it is a light, easy read. Those who love books about books, or books about antique books and the art of bookbinding, should add this to your TBR list.