Victoria Josslin - Magical Realism, Romance
Bainbridge author Victoria Josslin's novel
The
Bookstore of Other Languages (2018) is "an international romance, a
screwball comedy, and a mystery set in motion by a jolt of magical realism,”
says Jim Demetre, former arts editor of Seattle Magazine. The book's
protagonist Bryce Hanford, aimless, drifting and stuck, is in need of a
spark of energy. He finds it at The Bookstore which offers "effortless fluency
in any language through a simple and safe outpatient procedure.” The Bookstore
leads Bryce, his family, his true love, his girlfriend (oops), a couple of
fraudulent co-conspirators, and a deus ex machina of questionable ethics from
Seattle to Tirana to Paris, with a slight detour to Manaus. While Bryce
finds it in himself to handle fraud, smuggling, and a friend’s sudden cancer
diagnosis, not to mention handling Cousin Brenda, he also finds that what he
really wants is someone who speaks his own language.
