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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
The Lost Manuscript by Cathy Bonidan
Pub Date: January 12, 2021
Thank you Netgalley and St. Martins Press for this heartwarming ARC
I listened to the audiobook and I absolutely fell in love with this epistolary novel. the french accents of the narrators, they were flawless. It was such a delightful listen. In fact, they were my favorite part! They were engaging and did a great job telling such a charming & magical story. I found I had to slow myself down a lot because sometimes I got confused with the poetic letters and which character they were talking about but that did not take away from my rating. I enjoyed the mysterious journey of Anne Lise and it will stick with me for awhile!
5 star read for me!
Pub Date: January 12, 2021
Thank you Netgalley and St. Martins Press for this heartwarming ARC
I listened to the audiobook and I absolutely fell in love with this epistolary novel. the french accents of the narrators, they were flawless. It was such a delightful listen. In fact, they were my favorite part! They were engaging and did a great job telling such a charming & magical story. I found I had to slow myself down a lot because sometimes I got confused with the poetic letters and which character they were talking about but that did not take away from my rating. I enjoyed the mysterious journey of Anne Lise and it will stick with me for awhile!
5 star read for me!
I read this book because I thought I’d donate it after since I’m moving + downsizing… but I wound up loving it. I haven’t underlined so much in a book in FOREVER. The book on this cover is WRONG, and I’m sure it turns away so many people. I recommend this book to everyone I know. It deserves a classy cover for a timeless tale!!!! Her writing is prose. I read it in one sitting (minus the drive to the airport in between) and found myself smiling on the plane at the comedic writing. This if for lovers of books everywhere!!!
Honestly I got some Sally Rooney vibes…
“Sometimes we see more clearly into someone who lies than into someone who tells the truth.”
“I will only say that I am amazed that you were so naive that you believed that a young woman is not in love simply because she does not say that she is.”
“And besides, what do we expect from men if not that endlessly verified certainty that they can never understand us.”
“My only motivation was to meet a person who had loved this book and who, because of that, already felt familiar to me.”
“I know that characters on paper can modify our memories and remain forever at our sides.”
“Am I turning into a starry-eyed girl?”
Honestly I got some Sally Rooney vibes…
“Sometimes we see more clearly into someone who lies than into someone who tells the truth.”
“I will only say that I am amazed that you were so naive that you believed that a young woman is not in love simply because she does not say that she is.”
“And besides, what do we expect from men if not that endlessly verified certainty that they can never understand us.”
“My only motivation was to meet a person who had loved this book and who, because of that, already felt familiar to me.”
“I know that characters on paper can modify our memories and remain forever at our sides.”
“Am I turning into a starry-eyed girl?”
Thank you to NetGalley for my advanced audiobook copy.
I really wanted to love this book, but it ended up just being okay for me.
It's comprised of letters back and forth between the characters to get to the bottom of where the manuscript came from and there are A LOT of characters. I honestly couldn't keep track of all of them. Also, since there were so many characters I couldn't really connect with any one of them.
This might be a good book for someone who enjoys reading through letters and piecing together a story, but it wasn't for me. I'm still giving it 3 stars because I can see the beauty in what the author was going for with the book.
I really wanted to love this book, but it ended up just being okay for me.
It's comprised of letters back and forth between the characters to get to the bottom of where the manuscript came from and there are A LOT of characters. I honestly couldn't keep track of all of them. Also, since there were so many characters I couldn't really connect with any one of them.
This might be a good book for someone who enjoys reading through letters and piecing together a story, but it wasn't for me. I'm still giving it 3 stars because I can see the beauty in what the author was going for with the book.
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The Lost Manuscript // by Cathy Bonidan // narrated by Elodie Yung, Rupert Degas, Cecile Delepiere, and Jean Brassard
I first received this as an ebook but was really excited to see it available as an audiobook as well later on. Having multiple narrators is something I really enjoy so I was thrilled to be approved for this one. Once I was a little into the book though, I struggled a little with keeping up with the many character switches, something that I think would've been a little bit easier for me if I had read the ebook instead. The whole book is written in the format of letters and emails, something that I don't get often but enjoy a lot when I do because it feels so personal. While it was a little confusing there at the start, eventually it did become easier as I got to know the characters better and could keep their life stories apart more easily. I found the premise intriguing from the start but I didn't realize just how many people would be involved in the manuscript's travels and it was fascinating to hear it all. There is a lot of emotion, love, and struggle in this story that will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside by the end.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
I first received this as an ebook but was really excited to see it available as an audiobook as well later on. Having multiple narrators is something I really enjoy so I was thrilled to be approved for this one. Once I was a little into the book though, I struggled a little with keeping up with the many character switches, something that I think would've been a little bit easier for me if I had read the ebook instead. The whole book is written in the format of letters and emails, something that I don't get often but enjoy a lot when I do because it feels so personal. While it was a little confusing there at the start, eventually it did become easier as I got to know the characters better and could keep their life stories apart more easily. I found the premise intriguing from the start but I didn't realize just how many people would be involved in the manuscript's travels and it was fascinating to hear it all. There is a lot of emotion, love, and struggle in this story that will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside by the end.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
There’s nothing like the gravitational force a book that is read in form of letter to letter, from person to person. It’s a wonderful story.
Pour yourself a chouchen in a large, frosted glass and be prepared to lose track of time as you delve into Cathy Bonidan’s recently translated novel, ‘The Lost Manuscript.’ Originally written in French and named ‘Room 128,’ Bonidan’s epistolary exchanges over a 6-month period have a strong potential for screen adaptation.
Anne-Lise Briard has just checked into room 128 of the Beau Rivage Hotel in Finistère on the west coast of Brittany, France, when she looks over to the night table and discovers a manuscript. Believing the previous guest absent-mindedly left it, Anne-Lise plans on alerting the staff at the front desk the next morning. Her plans change, however, when she reads the manuscript. Upon finding an address scribbled on one of the pages, she sends it off in the post, thinking she’s returning it to the forgetful author. When he responds, she discovers that not only is he the author, but also that he’d lost the manuscript 33 years ago in the Montreal airport!
What you’ll read next are letters exchanged between strangers, who become friends, and you’ll learn what happened to the manuscript from the time it was lost on a flight to Montreal on April 3, 1983 until Anne-Lise found it in France on April 25th, 2016. Bonidan has successfully achieved her purpose: a hope that readers would discover the magic ability of a book to bring people together. Each life that comes in contact with this manuscript is changed for the better and even the mention of it opens doors and faces light up. One woman recalls spending four years adding to the manuscript as she lived out what were to be her final days with a tumor only to discover that when she finished adding to it, her health had improved. You’ll read about an incarcerated criminal, a depressed woman on the brink, a tired mother, a lonely widower, a forgotten woman in a rehab facility, a tormented woman who loses her family in an accident and a middle-aged curmudgeon who are all tied to the manuscript. Long stripped of it’s envelope, the manuscript has been the centerpiece of a neighbourhood dinner party, forgotten on a beach, delivered to a library in the bottom of a box of donated books, stowed away in an attic for 10 years and tucked in a box of items belonging to a deceased stepfather. It’s travelled to America, Canada, Belgium, and France. If it could talk, I’ve often wondered what stories a lost item could tell upon finding it. Briard has successfully managed to do just that through the correspondence.
Briard has an amazing ability to recruit the reader into the search for those who have been in contact with the manuscript. All of a sudden you’ll notice the tone and greetings between the strangers improve and the communication become more familiar as you get swept up in the quest to retrace its journey. Briards unique premise, her writing style and her cast of colourful characters culminate in an unforgettable tale that will keep readers spellbound. I hope she plans on publishing the manuscript now that she has readers invested in its history.
Thank you to Cathy Bonidan, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this fantastic advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Anne-Lise Briard has just checked into room 128 of the Beau Rivage Hotel in Finistère on the west coast of Brittany, France, when she looks over to the night table and discovers a manuscript. Believing the previous guest absent-mindedly left it, Anne-Lise plans on alerting the staff at the front desk the next morning. Her plans change, however, when she reads the manuscript. Upon finding an address scribbled on one of the pages, she sends it off in the post, thinking she’s returning it to the forgetful author. When he responds, she discovers that not only is he the author, but also that he’d lost the manuscript 33 years ago in the Montreal airport!
What you’ll read next are letters exchanged between strangers, who become friends, and you’ll learn what happened to the manuscript from the time it was lost on a flight to Montreal on April 3, 1983 until Anne-Lise found it in France on April 25th, 2016. Bonidan has successfully achieved her purpose: a hope that readers would discover the magic ability of a book to bring people together. Each life that comes in contact with this manuscript is changed for the better and even the mention of it opens doors and faces light up. One woman recalls spending four years adding to the manuscript as she lived out what were to be her final days with a tumor only to discover that when she finished adding to it, her health had improved. You’ll read about an incarcerated criminal, a depressed woman on the brink, a tired mother, a lonely widower, a forgotten woman in a rehab facility, a tormented woman who loses her family in an accident and a middle-aged curmudgeon who are all tied to the manuscript. Long stripped of it’s envelope, the manuscript has been the centerpiece of a neighbourhood dinner party, forgotten on a beach, delivered to a library in the bottom of a box of donated books, stowed away in an attic for 10 years and tucked in a box of items belonging to a deceased stepfather. It’s travelled to America, Canada, Belgium, and France. If it could talk, I’ve often wondered what stories a lost item could tell upon finding it. Briard has successfully managed to do just that through the correspondence.
Briard has an amazing ability to recruit the reader into the search for those who have been in contact with the manuscript. All of a sudden you’ll notice the tone and greetings between the strangers improve and the communication become more familiar as you get swept up in the quest to retrace its journey. Briards unique premise, her writing style and her cast of colourful characters culminate in an unforgettable tale that will keep readers spellbound. I hope she plans on publishing the manuscript now that she has readers invested in its history.
Thank you to Cathy Bonidan, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this fantastic advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
I love an epistolary novel and this one was fairly good. There were, perhaps, a few too many people mentioned (as in, I had to flip back to figure out who some of them were, when they were mentioned at the end) and the plot of the actual manuscript is never divulged, which I found frustrating.
I got this book from @appletreebooks because they were hosting a fundraiser for the school where I work and it's right down the street from my apartment. So I had to go. And even though I'm the library's biggest fan (what's a broke bookworm to do?) I wanted to buy a book but didn't have one in mind. I picked this up simply because it looked interesting. It's about a woman named Anne-Lise who finds a manuscript in a drawer in her Brittany hotel room and tracks down the author. Only to discover that the author, Sylvestre, lost it thirty years ago and someone else entirely wrote the ending. What follows is an epistolary journey through time, picking up a group of people that have all been touched by the book along the way.
I liked it a lot. It's definitely a quiet novel, but an easy, quick read (I find many epistolary novels are) that's translated from French (well). I enjoyed it a lot. I kept thinking while reading it that it may not stick with me, but since finishing it I've become even more charmed so maybe it will.
I liked it a lot. It's definitely a quiet novel, but an easy, quick read (I find many epistolary novels are) that's translated from French (well). I enjoyed it a lot. I kept thinking while reading it that it may not stick with me, but since finishing it I've become even more charmed so maybe it will.