JULY 26, 2018 // 21
BOOKMONGER
Author’s debut novel laced with
romance, intrigue, magical realism
Let’s begin with the
alluring title of this week’s
book: “The Bookstore of
Other Languages.” Author
Victoria Josslin, who splits
her time between Bainbridge
Island and New Mexico,
weaves together romance,
international intrigue and a
dash of magical realism in
this uneven but entertaining
debut novel.
The eponymous Seattle
bookstore not only stocks
books in scores of different
languages, it also sells the
ability to read and/or speak
those languages.
Bryce Hanford is the
single, 38-year-old, owner
of a computer business up
in the San Juan Islands. He
has to go into Seattle one
day for a medical procedure
and stops in at the book-
store. Although he’s mildly
interested in taking on the
challenge of reading a book
in a foreign language, he
is nonplussed by the store
employee’s description of
transcranial magnetic stim-
ulation (TMS), a procedure
that ostensibly transmits
language skills to clients on
a temporary basis.
Bryce flees the premises
to find a bookstore that sells
more conventional offerings.
But only a short while after
returning to his home and
COURTESY VICTORIA JOSSLIN
Author Victoria Josslin
customary routine in the
San Juan Islands, he gets a
frantic call from his uncle.
Bryce’s thoroughly unpleas-
ant cousin Brenda has gotten
herself into yet another fix
of some sort — this time in
Albania. Uncle Mel asks
Bryce to go extricate his
cousin from the mess she’s
in — and he will pay for all
of his nephew’s expenses.
Reluctantly, Bryce
agrees, and he realizes that
the only way he can do this
expediently is to stop in
at the Bookstore of Other
LOOKING TO PURCHASE OR REFINANCE A HOME,
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Languages before he flies
out of SeaTac Airport and
undergo the TMS procedure
to become temporarily fluent
in Albanian.
As it turns out, this will
not be the only time that
Bryce will need to take
advantage of the services
offered by the bookstore.
The author concocts a
freewheeling tale about
Bryce and his forays into
foreign realms, tossing in
additional misadventures
with international thieves,
domestic healthcare and —
most treacherously — affairs
of the heart.
Josslin’s descriptive
powers are top-notch. The
hospital rooms, restaurants,
family birthday parties and
street scenes are detailed
with authority and imagina-
tion.
Likewise, the character
development is multifaceted
and adept. That’s true for the
main players, at least. Some
of the secondary characters
— Brenda, for example —
tend to be more cartoonish.
But taken altogether, the
interplay seems to work
pretty well.
The connectivity of the
hybrid storyline is less as-
sured. Josslin tosses together
elements of science fiction,
romance, conspiracy, cozy
mystery, philosophy and
family drama. Moving from
one scenario to the next,
there are tonal differences
that can be rather jarring.
“The Bookstore of
Other Languages”
By Victoria Josslin
E.F. Metz Press
258 pp
$16.95
The cover of Victoria Josslin’s
‘The Bookstore of Other Lan-
guages.’
There are a couple of coin-
cidences that seem to be too
good to be true. And a busi-
ness deal that concludes one
of the story threads seems
implausibly tidy.
While not flawless, “The
Bookstore of Other Lan-
guages” is the kind of story
you’ll be eager to get back to
every time you set it down.
Its underlying affirmation of
the value of human relation-
ships is beguiling.
The Bookmonger is Bar-
bara Lloyd McMichael, who
writes this weekly column
focusing on the books, au-
thors and publishers of the
Pacific Northwest. Contact
her at bkmonger@nwlink.
com
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