This charming novel was a local bookstore’s pick for its monthly book club. The bookstore, which I have mentioned in previous reviews, is the Cincinnati Book Bus, which is a non-profit bookstore. They raise money to get books into schools and young readers’ hands, and during the summer months, they have a book bus that takes its wares on the road. The Door-To-Door Bookstore is a perfect choice for their book club, as it is a German novel (translation by Melody Shaw) about an old man who spends his evenings delivering books to select clients whose tastes he knows and caters to. Carl Kollhoff has devoted his life to books and is a creature of habit who is about to experience an unexpected, possibly unwelcome (?) life altering event that will have reverberations for his clients as well.
Carl Kollhoff has been working for the City Gate bookstore in a small German town for his whole life. Its original owner, Gustav Gruber, has been his lifelong friend, but they are both old men now, and Gustav has passed the store on to his daughter Sabine. Carl works only part-time, delivering books to select clients in the evenings. These clients know and trust Carl to find them exactly the right books, and they are always happy to see him on their doorstep. Sabine, however, feels like these old ways of handling the bookshop are better left behind and that the shop needs to be updated and modern. She wants to phase out the old fashioned book delivery method and, truth be told, phase out Carl, too. In the first part of the novel, Carsten Henn introduces readers to Carl’s regulars, an eclectic group of readers of different ages and interests. Carl has a knack for knowing exactly what books they want, and he also renames each client in his head, bestowing appropriate literary nicknames to each of them (such as Mr. Darcy, Mrs. Longstocking, Dr. Faustus). Each person has a reason for preferring book delivery to actually going out to the bookstore, and those reasons will become significant later in the story.
Carl is happy with his routine, following the same paths every day to traverse the town and make his deliveries. One day, however, a nine-year-old girl named Schascha begins to tag along. Carl does not want her company, but she is persistent and assertive. Carl worries that this little girl will upset his clients but most seem to warm up to her easily. Carl, however, needs more time. He is very fond of his rut and finds it somewhat alarming when Schscha begins to question whether Carl really knows and understands what his clients want and need to be reading. Over the weeks, Carl begins to enjoy the company of his young friend and her insights into other people. Yet there is trouble on the horizon, and that trouble involves the Grubers, Schascha’s family and some folks connected to Carl’s clients.
This is a delightful story about the power of books and about the bonds that can be built amongst book lovers. I love the way all of the stories — Carl’s, his clients’ and Schascha’s — come together in the end. It’s just a very very sweet story. Book people are the best people!