Book Review: The Lost Manuscript by Cathy Bonidan

  Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this ebook free of charge, from St Martin's Press, via #netgalley, for review purposes on this blog. No compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it, all opinions are my own

Sometimes a book has the power to change your life…

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.

Review:

This is one of those books that leans toward the esoetic. It is written in letters, from Anne-Lise to the writer of the book, and then to the second writer, who finished the book. It's not a quick read, but one that is read in chapters, for me the beginning and the end were the most interesting. The middle? Ugh, maybe I just wasn't in the mood for long drawn out phrasing and melodrama. It's not a bad book, just not what I thought it would be, and not one for light reading.

About the Author: 

Cathy Bonidan works as a teacher in Vannes and has been writing since the age of fourteen. Her debut novel, The Perfume of Hellebore Rose, won eleven literary awards in France.