4/5 stars on Goodreads
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| The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix |
The Left-Handed Booksellers of London takes place in alternative London of 1983;
alternative, because magic and magical beings exist, and because post-war
Britain has seen greater advancement in women’s rights than the actual Britain,
though the only evidence of that is an earlier woman prime minister and a woman
detective at the Met.
Susan
Arkshaw has turned eighteen and is about to start in an art school in London in
the fall. She has the summer to experience the big city after growing up in a
farm outside Bath, and find her father that her mother never talks about. The
first clue leads her to a man that turns out to be not only a criminal, but not
even a human.
This brings
her to the attention of an organisation of booksellers, both left and
right-handed, that exists to keep the Old World and its creatures in check. But
the Old World is curiously interested in Susan, which makes the booksellers
suspect that her father might not be a human either. Unfortunately for Susan,
it has been the policy of the booksellers to kill such children outright.
Not all
booksellers are so old-fashioned though. Helping her are Merlin, a left-handed
bookseller and a charming man—most of the time—of nineteen, and his sister Vivian,
a right-handed bookseller. Together, they journey through England to find the
truth about Susan’s father. Action, adventure and a rather high body count
follow.
This was a
great book. Susan was a levelheaded young woman who took her new circumstances
in a stride. For an art student, however, she was curiously uninterested in
expressing herself with art. Only her encyclopedic knowledge of everything from
old grandfather clocks to architecture and weapons revealed her hobby, and even
then, it might be the narrator’s knowledge. Merlin was a delightful character with his
interest in clothes, both men’s and women’s, and he made a good love interest.
The booksellers were a fun bunch with their eccentricities and love for books.
Narration
was from the third person omniscient point of view, which gave the book a somewhat
old-fashioned feel. It also led to some abrupt changes in point of view, but
for the most part it worked well. I’m definitely interested in reading more.