REVIEW:

When was the last time you wrote a letter? Not a text, not an email, but an actual letter using pen and paper? The elegance of The Lost Manuscript will make you want to set your phone and computer aside in lieu of custom stationary and a pile of postage stamps.

This cozy 2019 French novel has been translated into English for 2021 publication. The bookish plot is told in the epistolary format, with letters being exchanged between characters. Not texts. Not emails. Letters! Oh so lovely.

At the heart of the story is a mystery about a found manuscript and the hands it has passed through since its original author lost it decades ago. I kept thinking how nice it was to have a mystery that wasn’t about solving a murder or the gaslighting of another person. While these characters and their pasts aren’t perfect, they all seem to be well-intentioned. It was a pleasure to spend time with this collection of people who love books as much as I do.

Heeding the suggestion of a fellow Goodreads reviewer, I listened to the audiobook. Each letter writer is voiced by a different (heavily-accented) narrator. I love this technique! Some of the dialect, names and locations were difficult to understand initially, but I quickly embraced the immersion into French. I realized I had a smile on my face as the final words were read. Or should I say, un sourire sur mon visage?

The audiobook of The Lost Manuscript is currently available on the Hoopla library app. (As of 1/30/21.)

PUBLISHER SYNOPSIS:

When Anne-Lise Briard books a room at the Beau Rivage Hotel for her vacation on the Brittany coast, she has no idea this trip will start her on the path to unearthing a mystery. In search of something to read, she opens up her bedside table drawer in her hotel room, and inside she finds an abandoned manuscript. Halfway through the pages, an address is written. She sends pages to the address, in hopes of potentially hearing a response from the unknown author. But not before she reads the story and falls in love with it. The response, which she receives a few days later, astonishes her...

Not only does the author write back, but he confesses that he lost the manuscript 30 years prior on a flight to Montreal. And then he reveals something even more shocking--that he was not the author of the second half of the book.

Anne-Lise can't rest until she discovers who this second mystery author is, and in doing so tracks down every person who has held this manuscript in their hands. Through the letters exchanged by the people whose lives the manuscript has touched, she discovers long-lost love stories and intimate secrets. Romances blossom and new friends are made. Everyone's lives are made better by this book--and isn't that the point of reading? And finally, with a plot twist you don't see coming, she uncovers the astonishing identity of the author who finished the story.