By Stéphane Carlier, translated by Polly Mackintosh,
paperback £9.99, grown-up fiction
(reviewed by Clare)

A pick-me-up of a book about a young woman working in a Parisian hair salon whose life is changed when she picks up a copy of In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust, left behind by an enigmatic gentleman who drops by for a haircut. Clara becomes completely absorbed by the writing ‘which she feels for a reason she still cannot understand, will make her stronger’.

A hymn to the transformative power of books and their ability to open previously undreamed-of new horizons to the reader. A cup-of-tea-on-the-sofa or glass-of-wine-in-the-garden kind of book about unleashing your creativity and embracing what you love in life even if ‘there is no visible, Instagrammable outcome’. This elegant, slender volume written in short chapters would be a perfect book club choice. Serve with tea and madeleines for the full Proustian experience.

(If reading this tempts you to read or re-read Proust for yourself, we also stock In Search of Lost Time, Book 1.)