The Last Bookshop in London
In August 1939, Grace Bennett arrives in London with her best friend Viv, chasing a dream of working in one of the city's grand department stores and a letter of reference from a family friend. Department store work does not materialize, and Grace, who has never cared much for reading, takes the only job offered: a position at Primrose Hill Books, a dusty, beloved shop near Paternoster Row run by an unsmiling man named Mr. Evans. As the Blitz begins and bombs start falling, Grace discovers both her love of books and an unexpected vocation: reading aloud in the shop to neighbors taking shelter, turning the bookstore into a small community of readers stitched together against the fires outside. Madeline Martin's novel is a warm historical about the Blitz, booksellers, and the consolation of stories under bombardment.
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Grace Bennett moves from a Norfolk village to London in August 1939 hoping for a department store job and gets six months at the dusty Primrose Hill Books on Paternoster Row instead. As the city goes dark and the bombs start falling, the shop becomes her air raid shelter and her purpose.
The Last Bookshop in London was written by Madeline Martin and published in 2021. Martin is also the author of The Librarian Spy and The Keeper of Hidden Books, both World War II historical novels.
The Last Bookshop in London is fictional but built around the real history of London's Paternoster Row publishing district during the Blitz. The bookshop and protagonist are invented; the historical context is documented.
The Last Bookshop in London is 473 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Last Bookshop in London takes most readers 7 to 10 hours to finish.
The Last Bookshop in London is a standalone novel by an unknown author, not part of a series.
The Last Bookshop in London is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
