is an homage to books and

book lovers. An oldie but a goodie, this novel has been recommended to

me for years by customers and coworkers. I love Zafron's writing style,

his compelling sense of story and his humor. On an inbriated priest with

wedding day stage fright, he writes, "When the time came for Father

Fernando to officiate, wearing a saintly smile and a pleasantly rosy

complexion, he chose, in a breach of protocol, to replace the reading of

I don't know which letter to the Corinthians with a love sonnet, the

work of a poet called Pablo Neruda. Some of Mr. Aguilar's guests

identified him as a confirmed communist and Bolshevic, while others

looked in the missal for those verses of intense pagan beauty, wondering

whether this was already one of the first effects of the impending

Ecumenical Council." (p. 476) I had immediate sympatico with the young

book-selling protagonist  who thought, "I smiled as only one who has

spent many hours behind a counter can do." (p. 144)is an homage to books and book lovers. An oldie but a goodie, this novel has been recommended to me for years by customers and coworkers. I love Zafron's writing style, his compelling sense of story and his humor. On an inbriated priest with wedding day stage fright, he writes, "When the time came for Father Fernando to officiate, wearing a saintly smile and a pleasantly rosy complexion, he chose, in a breach of protocol, to replace the reading of I don't know which letter to the Corinthians with a love sonnet, the work of a poet called Pablo Neruda. Some of Mr. Aguilar's guests identified him as a confirmed communist and Bolshevic, while others looked in the missal for those verses of intense pagan beauty, wondering whether this was already one of the first effects of the impending Ecumenical Council." (p. 476) I had immediate sympatico with the young book-selling protagonist  who thought, "I smiled as only one who has spent many hours behind a counter can do." (p. 144)