One of the great love-letters to books and bookstores returns"When you sell a man a book," says Roger Mifflin, the protagonist of this classic novella, "you don't sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue--you sell him a whole new life." Mifflin--whom we first meet in Morley's Parnassus on Wheels--is an itinerant bookseller, ensconced in literary Brooklyn. "If you are ever in Brooklyn, that borough of superb sunsets and magnificent vistas of husband-propelled baby-carriages," he advises, "it is to be hoped you may chance upon a quiet by-street where there is a very remarkable bookshop." The shop, haunted by "the ghosts of all great literature," provides the alluring setting for this suspenseful novella. Strange things are happening: books disappear and reappear, suspicious characters lurk, and the distant First World War may be encroaching even on the peaceful old brownstone where the shop makes it home. A thoroughly entertaining tribute to the bookseller's art, and one of the most beloved bookish novels of all time.
