Ohmigawd, we made it to the end of 2020!! None too soon for most of us, I imagine – can we get a petition going for a generally nicer year in 2021? That would be really cool, and everyone would appreciate it, I’m sure.
But to see out the year, we usually choose one book to take us from December into January, and this year’s end-of-year pick is THE LEFT-HANDED BOOKSELLERS OF LONDON by Garth Nix. Emmaly and I both noticed that we hadn’t scheduled any male authors this year (oh well!) so we thought Garth’s book might be a nice way to finish off – and I’ve heard excellent things about this book, which a few of our members might be getting for Christmas…
Here’s the blurb:
In a slightly alternate London in 1983, Susan Arkshaw is looking for her father, a man she has never met. Crime boss Frank Thringley might be able to help her, but Susan doesn’t get time to ask Frank any questions before he is turned to dust by the prick of a silver hatpin in the hands of the outrageously attractive Merlin.
Merlin is a young left-handed bookseller (one of the fighting ones), who with the right-handed booksellers (the intellectual ones), are an extended family of magical beings who police the mythic and legendary Old World when it intrudes on the modern world, in addition to running several bookshops.
Susan’s search for her father begins with her mother’s possibly misremembered or misspelt surnames, a reading room ticket, and a silver cigarette case engraved with something that might be a coat of arms.
Merlin has a quest of his own, to find the Old World entity who used ordinary criminals to kill his mother. As he and his sister, the right-handed bookseller Vivien, tread in the path of a botched or covered-up police investigation from years past, they find this quest strangely overlaps with Susan’s. Who or what was her father? Susan, Merlin, and Vivien must find out, as the Old World erupts dangerously into the New.
THE LEFT-HANDED BOOKSELLERS OF LONDON is available to order with free shipping through Boomerang Books right here if you use the ‘loveoz’ code. Or you can find the digital version here.
You can take your time with this one – #LoveOzYAbookclub won’t be back up and running until the start of February 2021, which means you have more than a month to read. Enjoy the book! And on behalf of Emm and myself, we hope your holiday season is festive, and your burdens are light, and that all good things arrive for our bookclubbers in 2021 – onward to the stars, and see you in the New Year!
xxEllie