The Forgotten Bookshop in Paris

by Daisy Wood

He will call his shop La Page Cachée – The Hidden Page – because he knows the magic that is to be found within the covers of a book.

Jacques has everything he’s ever wanted – heaven, within his grasp – and only the tiniest seed of dread that his happiness is too extraordinary to last, that the gods who’ve been so unexpectedly smiling on him will change their minds.

‘If you can’t think what to do,’ her brother Andrew had once told her, ‘at least decide what you don’t want to do.’

‘You’re a peacemaker, Jacques, and I love you for that. You want to smooth things over and you can’t bear hurting anyone’s feelings. But those days are over, don’t you see? The more you give these people, the more they’ll take, and they’ll laugh at you in the process. You have to harden your heart.’

She looked at him sadly. ‘We have to try. A life without freedom is no life at all.’

‘Is it better to die gloriously for the sake of freedom or live under enemy occupation? I’m not sure what I would choose.’

‘I’m thinking of calling it “The Forgotten Bookshop”. What do you think?’ ‘Very poetic.’ Arnaud raised his glass. ‘We should be breaking out the Champagne.’ ‘I’d like people to feel as though they’ve found a place off the beaten track that the locals know about, rather than a tourist trap,’ Juliette said. ‘I want this shop to become part of the community, with maybe a book club, and poetry readings, and writers dropping by.’

‘Death is coming for all of us; it’s how we live that matters.’