The Left-Handed Booksellers of London

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix

Having done a 12 year stint as a bookseller this book had me very intrigued by the title alone. On top of which I am a pretty big Garth Nix fan. So definitely excited on 2 counts heading into this read.

Our story begins when Susan makes her way to London to attend art school with a side quest of discovering the identity of her father. After a quiet life growing up in the country with a rather absent-minded mother, she almost immediately finds herself in a situation where myth and reality start to bump up against each other and bits of the 'Old World' seem to be leaking through into the 'New World.' Her search to discover her father's identity quickly becomes much more involved than just calling up a few of her mother's old friends, enter a fabulous left-handed bookseller named Merlin, and that's where the story really takes off.

I like to keep my reviews very spoiler free, so:

The society of booksellers is great. We get to meet quite a few of them in the course of Susan's adventures, and the hierarchy and nuance of relationships and the real-life co-worker politics among the booksellers makes them really come alive off the page.

There are several Old World creatures and characters that make appearances - all derived from mythology and fairytales, and I enjoyed the detail in Nix's versions of them, and how well every single one played its role in the story. Pulling that many different elements together into a single narrative is a real achievement.

Merlin is my favorite. He is thoroughly himself, which is at times a little bewildering, but I loved him for it.

If you enjoy adventures of legendary proportions, or secret societies, or books about bookstores, this is definitely worth a read. It gets 5 stars from me.

I received an ARC from Netgalley. This is an unbiased review.

"A clerk there was, sinister gloved
Dexter scorning, his sword well-loved
Wielded mirror-wise, most adept
Bookes and slaughter, in both well kept."