By daring to enlarge her neighbors lives, she crosses Mrs.

By making a success of a business so impractical, she invites the hostility of the towns less prosperous shopkeepers.

In 1959 Florence Green, a kindhearted widow with a small inheritance, risks everything to open a bookshop-the only bookshop-in the seaside town of Hardborough. With an Introduction by David Nicholls, international best-selling author of One Day. Book Synopsis National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author Penelope Fitzgeralds The Bookshop is a marvelously piercing fiction (Times Literary Supplement), short-listed for the Booker Prize. Featuring an introduction by David Nicholls. Lee has inspired me to read more on her subject.About the Book A marvelously piercing fiction (Times Literary Supplement), shortlisted for the Booker Prize. And that is the highest compliment I can give a biographer. Lee did such a masterful job explaining what may have influenced Fitzgerald and the brilliance of her works (which included biographies and novels) that I am determined to read them all at some point in my life. The barge, for example, led to her novel, Offshore. The family’s poverty led to unforgettable experiences, such as living in an old barge on the River Thames, which was fodder for Fitzgerald’s future novels. Penelope was forced to work hard to keep the family afloat. But her husband’s difficulty dealing with the aftermath as a World War II soldier led to his heavy drinking, which drove his family to near-destitution. Her father’s role as editor at Punch and her esteemed uncles’ involvements with Oxford and the Enigma project during World War II opened some doors for her. After all, we can live with people for years and know little about what goes on in their minds.įitzgerald lived an unusual life, encompassing privilege, education, poverty, and hard work. Even though Lee sometimes expresses frustration with Fitzgerald’s secretiveness, she makes you feel like you know her intimately. Once you got past the lengthy section on Fitzgerald’s illustrious family, what was so compelling about the book was the sense you get of knowing the subject. If this book indicates her skill, I will go out of my way to read others. Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life is the first of her biographies I have read. Hermione Lee has a reputation as an excellent biographer. But I was unaware the film was based on a book or who had written it. A few years ago, I watched the movie, The Bookshop, and loved it. I’m embarrassed to admit that I had never heard of Penelope Fitzgerald before researching my most recent book, Library Lin’s Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs. Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life by Hermione Lee

Penelope fitzgerald the bookshop review