Book Review | How books transform lives

This book, originally published in German, and very well translated into English by Melody Shaw, is a story set in an old bookshop in a small town in Germany. Like all bookshops that have persisted against the odds over the years, the City Gate bookshop, too, is in a state of transition. Its owner, the formidable Gustav Gruber, is in a care home. His most beloved employee and trusted friend over so many years is Carl Kolhoff, now employed part-time with the limited responsibility of delivering a few books to particular customers.

Sabine Gruber, the new owner and Gustav’s daughter has rung in sweeping changes, modernised the delivery with customers ordering online and preferring to attend to walk-ins herself. Carl has no place in her scheme of things. She has done her best to marginalise Carl.

The one thing she has not reckoned or perhaps can never reconcile to is Carl’s knowledge of books and of his customers. We see early evidence of this. “Can you recommend a good book?” a stock question every bookseller has faced is asked by Ursel Schafer to Sabine Gruber. Sabine recommends a historical family saga with a green cover, a colour Ursel detests. Carl recommends the ideal book for bedtime reading, a romance set in Provence, which Ursel accepts happily.

Carl has a set of loyal customers whom he has named after characters in their favourite books. Christian von Hohenesch, a fabulously wealthy man, looks as if he had stepped out from the pages of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. So, he is called Mr Darcy. Andrea Cremmen is Effi Briest, a tragic heroine. Sister Maria Hildegard, a Benedictine nun, is Sister Amaryllis, based on the pious monk from Herman Hesse’s Narcissus and Goldmund. Another customer is simply the Reader based on Bernhard Schlink’s The Reader. Along with his book order, Carl also carries throat pastilles to soothe his throat.

Carl is accompanied on his rounds by a three-legged cat aptly called ‘Dog’ because it barks! Dog and Carl, more at home in the street, are one day joined by a 10-year-old girl, who has given herself a name Schascha. Her real name is Charlotte. Schascha determinedly accompanies the Book Walker on his rounds and his customers are charmed by her. She observes Carl’s interactions with his customers closely. The books selected are always the ones they like to read. Why not give them ones they ought to read, Schascha asks instead.

Schascha emerges as a pivotal figure. Along with Carl, they transform the lives of their customers. One is rescued from her abusive husband, another is taught to read and the Reader is persuaded to read from his own manuscript which Carl pronounces as a masterpiece.

Schascha’s heroic role is in the rescue and rehabilitation of Carl. Carl is formally sacked by Sabine on a complaint from Schascha’s father. But he continues to gift books to his former customers from the sale proceeds of his own books. The redoubtable Mr Darcy agrees to fund Carl distributing antiquarian books on a book mobile fashioned by Schascha’s father and the Book Walker ‘walks’ again.

This is a heart-warming book about the power of reading and how books can spread friendship and camaraderie.

The Door-to Door Bookstore

By Carsten Henn

Manilla Press

pp. 250; Rs 399