The Bookshop

Plot

The novel, set mainly in 1959, centres around Florence Green, a middle-aged widow, who decides to open a bookshop in the small coastal town of Hardborough, Suffolk. The location chosen is the Old House, an abandoned, damp house said to be infested by ghosts. After many sacrifices, Florence manages to start her business, which grows for about a year after which sales slump. She is opposed by the influential and ambitious Mrs Gamart, who wants and intends to set up an arts centre in the Old House. Mrs Gamart's nephew, a member of Parliament, sponsors a bill that empowers local councils to buy any historical building that has been left uninhabited for five years. The bill is passed, the Old House is compulsorily purchased, and Florence is evicted.

Critical reception

In a 2010 introduction Frank Kermode noted that the novel, first published in 1978, won Fitzgerald "the respectful attention of reviewers and the admiration of a larger public".

Film adaptation

A feature film has been adapted by the Spanish director Isabel Coixet, casting Emily Mortimer as Florence Green, Patricia Clarkson as Violet Gamart, and Bill Nighy as Edmund Brundish. The film, a Spanish-British-German co-production, will be internationally released during 2017. Filming locations include Portaferry, County Down, Northern Ireland and Barcelona, Spain.