THE PARIS BOOKSELLER by Kerri Maher is a well-written and intriguing work of historical fiction based upon the true story of American booklover, Sylvia Beach, and the founding of the famous Shakespeare and Company bookstore and lending library in Paris in 1919. The book shop became the meeting spot to many prominent writers and artists of that time. Sylvia forges an unlikely and complicated friendship with Irish writer James Joyce. When his controversial novel, Ulysses, is banned in the US, Sylvia risks everything, both personally and financially, to publish the book under Shakespeare and Company’s name. The novel transported me to Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. I enjoyed reading about the literary figures who moved in this world and the many relationships they shared. The portrayal of Beach’s same-sex relationship with Adrienne Monnier, another bookseller, was touching and heart-wrenching. The impact of both women on the literary world was strong and enduring, yet I admit I knew nothing of either previously. That’s what I love about historical fiction. I always learn something new. I enjoyed this compelling story and highly recommend it. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read an early copy.

Set in the 1920s, Sylvia Beach decides to open an English-language bookshop in Paris, Shakespeare and Company. While not clear at the beginning, this is essentially a biography of Sylvia Beach who became known for publishing James Joyce's "Ulysses" and then spiriting copies into the United States where it was banned, according to the Comstock Act. The bookstore becomes a mecca for many of the ex-pats living in Europe. Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce and many others all found a home within the walls of the bookshop. Beach and her partner, Adrienne Monnier, who ran a French-speaking bookshop a couple of blocks away, were able to form a relationship that would not have been acceptable in many other parts of the world, and explained, in part, Sylvia's desire to build a life in France. The book is also an excellent glimpse into the Paris of the 1920s, endless optimism, unlimited social opportunities, all while living in a world art capital.

I had heard of Shakespeare & Company, the iconic bookstore in Paris, before I agreed to review this title. Indeed, it was because I had heard of the bookstore (and love bookstores in general) that I agreed to read the novel. I soon realized, though, how little I knew about its history: I had never heard of Sylvia Beach, nor did I know that the name of the current store is an homage to the original, which went out of business in 1941.

What comes through clearly in this novel—which itself might be considered an homage to Sylvia Beach—is what remarkable women she and her long-time lover, Adrienne Monnier, were. Both had a vision of themselves as part of the larger community of expatriate authors known as the Lost Generation, offering crucial support that ranged from stocking the writers' books and offering venues for reading and the like to Beach's campaign first to publish and then to defend James Joyce's Ulysses. The two women were different, Adrienne more self-confident and Sylvia more inclined to place the interests of others before her own, but they developed a strong business and romantic partnership.

There is not a lot of dramatic tension in this book. If you love fast-paced, spine-tingling mysteries, you'd do better to look elsewhere. But as a gentle, even loving exploration of one woman's journey toward defining her own place in the world while shining a spotlight on many of the great writers of the 1920s (in addition to Joyce, Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and T.S. Eliot, among others, all make appearances), this is a novel well worth reading.

The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher gives one an opportunity to view literary Paris in the twenties and thirties. We get to observe up close and personal Joyce, Hemingway, Pound, Stein and more of the luminaries who made Paris their home in the 1920's. We get to know Sylvia Beach, who ran the bookstore, Shakespeare and Company and was the first publisher of Ulysses. Sylvia's backstory is centered around her desire to do something meaningful with her life. She struggles with her family dynamics. We learn about her aloof father and her mother, who often suffered from depression. Never confident in any of her relationships, she finds happiness with Adrienne Monnier. It takes courage for her to finally acknowledge her sexuality and to be comfortable about it. All of her strength, however, was spent helping James Joyce get Ulysses published and finding a way to sell it to the public. One is left wondering what their relationship really was, but Joyce and Beach relied on each other and often came to each other's rescue. While enjoying this scholarly visit with some of literature's greatest author, we also see the growth and maturity of Sylvia, who truly becomes her own person. This book was a delight both by way of history and by way of character development. (less)

Upon noticing the book title and the book cover for “The Paris Bookseller”, I was hooked on this book. I have had the opportunity to visit the bookstore Shakespeare and Company in Paris several times on my trips to France. After reading this inspiring book by Kerri Maher, I long to once again visit the place that Sylvia Beach make possible for unknown, but talented, writers to create books that will live on through the ages. I found myself captivated by Kerri Maher’s ability to draw the reader into a personalized way that Sylvia provided financial and moral support to some of the best “Lost Generation” authors. I think a book club would be an ideal forum to review and discuss this book! This is a book I would highly encourage any visitor to Paris to read; even those readers that might not able to actually travel to the “magical” place

The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher. A historical novel after my own heart, The Paris Bookseller is an intriguing story of one of the most famous bookstores in the world, Shakespeare and Company, in Paris, France, starting in 1919 when Sylvia Beach first opened it as the first English-language book store in the French capital. The prominent writers of the 1920’s and 1930’s frequented Shakespeare and Company, and it became a gathering place for people like Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein and, of course, James Joyce, whose novel Ulysses Ms. Beach published in segments. This is an interesting glimpse into a time when prohibition was on in the USA, and many artists and writers escaped to Europe to enjoy the lifestyle, and the discussion of banned books and pirating manuscripts was enlightening. I enjoyed this book immensely! I was privileged to read an advanced reader’s copy, and the book will be published on January 11, 2022.

I also posted this review on Facebook book clubs: Book Club Favorites, Goodreads Book Club, Women Reading Great Books, Read Any Good Books Lately? Book Club, Book Lovers Cafe, and Friends & Fiction Official Book Club. I posted this review online in the Scottsdale Corvette Club Newsletter, November-December 2021 issue.

Three of my favorite things in a book are historical fiction, books about books (or bookstores), and Paris. This novel satisfied all three. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Sylvia Beach and the 1920’s literary scene in Paris. It seems that the author did quite a bit of research as a foundation for this novel. I reviewed an advanced reader’s copy of the book. 3.5 stars rounded up

Historical fiction, Paris, books stores or books appearing in a title or description are enough to lead me to open the covers and read. The thing about historical fiction is the upward learning curve and the myriad of paths you can follow. The Paris Bookseller, is actually set in the 20's in the famed Paris bookstore, Shakespeare and Company that was the center of life for Americans in Paris as well as several of our most beloved authors. The heartbeat of the store, the bookseller, was Sylvia Beach of literary fame.

There are many paths you can follow through this book and the often fresh insights into the authors, publishing and life both in Paris and America are illuminating and leave you wanting to re-read favorites or pursue those never before read.. A wonderful read for book clubs, history buffs and anyone who simply wants a good read.

Oh I absolutely adored this.

Having just come back from Paris myself (of course, including a visit to the present-day iteration of Shakespeare & Company!), I was grateful for a chance to stay in Paris’ literary world.

I was totally immersed. A historical book about books that will fascinate anyone with an interest in Paris’ 1920s literary scene, and an intriguing portrait of the life of an extraordinary woman.

The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher is a fictional account of the Shakespeare and Company bookstore and lending library (1919-1941) owned by Sylvia Beach that became the gathering spot for the artists residing in Paris between the World Wars – among them, James Joyce, Ernest Hemmingway, Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and T.S. Elliot. The themes of the book include love, relationships, censorship, and art.
At the beginning of the book I was ambivalent about the writing. For example, the beauty of Adrienne asking "Did you find...your heart's desire?" compared with the crudeness of "made Sylvia sweat in her sheets." But I found that both the beauty and crudeness reflected the recurring themes of censorship and art.
Much of the book was about the relationships between Beach and James Joyce, between Beach and her love Adrienne, and between art and censorship. The lawyer in the United States defended Joyce's Ulysses in the courts on the basis that the book was so ugly it couldn't corrupt instead of the "grounds of truth and beauty." Ulysses was declared pornography and banned in the United States meaning Joyce couldn't find a publisher, so Sylvia became the publisher. “Censorship is not commensurate with democracy or art."
The issues are current today where the politicians are attempting to ban books like Beloved in schools and to ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory, even though their interpretation is ignorant. Before WWII, "The rulers in America wanted to outlaw anything that offended its sense of decorum. Book, play, film, organization, activity, or person was in danger of being silenced. The very suppression created more of what they feared - more anarchism and Marxism and protests and unrest and it was books like Ulysses that sought to open minds rather than slam them shut."
I enjoyed the middle part of the book - the publication of Ulysses- more than the beginning or the ending. We need more books that try to open our minds. For further reading, Shakespeare and Company by Sylvia Beach is the autobiography that is parallel to The Paris Bookseller.

I've read Hemingway and Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein and Sherwood Anderson, so of course I've heard of Sylvia Beach and Shakespeare and Company but I had never really learned about her in any detail. This historical novel fills that gap nicely. It was an enjoyable book for my vacation reading. It was also nice to have the Paris scene depicted from a women's point of view.

Sylvia Beach is The Paris Bookseller who became critical to the literary life of Paris in the years between the world wars. The establishment of Shakespeare & Company, the publishing of “Ulysses “, Sylvia’s relationships with James Joyce and Adrienne Monnier as well as the expatriate community in Paris during the 20s and 30s is an awful lot to cover in one book. Maher does an extraordinary job bringing all these diverse topics together in a highly readable an informative way. She also brought into sharp contrast the conservatism in the U.S. and the liberalism of Paris in the early 20th century..

What I did not care for was the preoccupation with James Joyce and the problems surrounding publishing and distribution of “Ulysses,” which was banned in the United States. I would have preferred a greater emphasis on Sylvia and Adrienne’s relationship, or on The Lost Generation the term coined by Gertrude Stein to describe the group of American writers who came of age during WWI and established their literary reputations in the 1920s.

This book would be of interest to those readers fond of the literature written in the decades prior to WWII, and any lover of books and bookstores in general. I recommend this book along with Noel Riley Fitch’s book, Sylvia. Beach and The Lost Generation: a History of Literary Paris In the Twenties and Thirties.

The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher

This was a beautiful story! Just appreciating all of the research and dedication that the author put into this book this alone makes this book worth reading! Kerri Maher did exactly what evey good historical fiction book should transport us back in time and bring an old story back to life! The time and detail she put into building her characters was done so well I felt like I knew them! This book is one that all book lovers will cherish! Truly an amazing experience reading this book! I hope to read more by this author in the near future! Happy reading everyone!

THE PARIS BOOKSELLER by Kerri Maher

I was half way through this book before I realized it is essentially an accurate and lengthy biography of Sylvia Beach and her English language bookshop. Beach and her Paris shop, “Shakespeare and Company”, hosted many of the writers and thinkers of the early half of the 20th century. She came to fame with her publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses when no one else would publish it. In fact, America had declared it pornography and prevented it from being published or sold in the US. The novel also covers her relationship with Adrienne Monnier and Monnier’s French language bookshop. Both women were sponsors of American, French and British writers.

The novel is well researched and well written but gets bogged down in the details. Joyce, Ulysses, Hemingway and Pound by themselves along with Beach could have made a fascinating tale that moved more quickly and kept the reader’s interest from flagging. Still, the history alone makes the book worth reading. Personally, I could have done with a hundred fewer pages.

3 of 5 stars

This is a charming book about Sylvia Beach and the original Shakespeare & Co. bookstore in Paris. I knew nothing about it, so it was lovely to learn more.

The Paris Bookseller does a great job of painting the time and place of Paris in 1918 and into the 1920s and 30s. It also contrasts Paris with the US, especially as the US enacted the Volstead Act and sought to outlaw anything that smacked of indecency. In stark contrast to my thoughts of the Roaring Twenties was the actuality that the US was still more a cauldron of bourgeois sensibilities that led to prohibition and banning Ulysses. Paris, on the other hand, had decriminalized same sex relationships during the French Revolution.
Maher fills her story with quite a few of the “names” of the day - Gertrude Stein, Hemingway, Ezra Pound and especially Joyce. She captures the personalities and makes it easy to see these great names as real people.
Sylvia Beach opened Shakespeare and Co., a bookstore in Paris devoted to selling and lending books written in English. When no American or English publisher would consider printing Ulysses, she undertook it, even though she had never published anything before. It almost led to her undoing, as Joyce continued to revise the manuscript even after it was being set for print. The book continues to be a thorn in her side, as bootleg copies undermine her ability to profit off the book.
Joyce, like many artists, is temperamental, demanding and horrible with finances. Sylvia puts up with him, at a cost to her own health and purse. In the end, he uses her badly, forgetting that without her, the book would never have been published.
I recommend this for fans of historical fiction. Make sure to read the Author’s Note which outlines her life after the book ends in 1936.
My thanks to Netgalley and Berkeley Publishing for an advance copy of this book.

A wonderful book about the original Shakespeare and Company bookstore. Kerri Maher, the author, introduces us to the amazing writers of the 1920s, their quirky personalities, and intellect, as they frequented Sylvia Beach's shop - particularly James Joyce. The reader feels like he/she is part of the Shakespeare and Company community as the author takes us into the camaraderie, relationships (both friendly and intimate), turmoil, and angst of living in that era in Paris.

Highly recommend!

American Ex-Pats in Paris in 1920s

A fascinating history of American Sylvia Beach and her bookstore, Shakespeare and Company. In Paris in the 1920s it became quite a hub for American writers living in Paris. This is also the story of how she became the first publisher of Joyce's "Ulysses" after it was banned in the US. It is quite an interesting tale.

Another fascinating aspect of the book is how the LGBQT community lived quite openly in the 20's since same sex relations had been decriminalized since the French Revolution. Many of these men and women took their lifestyles and the openness of those relationships for granted in a way that many today still cannot.

It was fascinating to explore other facets of the personalities of now famous authors :Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway,James Joyce , George Bernard Shaw to name a few.
It might not have been a book that pulled me in and didn't let escape until I had finished it but it was a fascinating and interesting read which would especially appeal to other literary minded readers. Sylvia Beach deserved this story to be written and I am glad that I was fortunate enough to have read it.

I was lucky enough to win an ARC of THE PARIS BOOKSELLER by Kerri Maher in a Shelf Awareness giveaway. Thanks for the early look, and have a safe and happy weekend!

This is the fictionalized account of the very real Sylvia Beach, and American bibliophile who opened an English bookstore in Paris. As her store attracted the blossoming crowd of writers in Paris during that time, she fostered relationships with such authors as James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and Ezra Pound. When the climate of censorship in the United States prevented the publication of Joyce's Ulysses, which Beach recognized as a major masterpiece of the 20th Century, she had the courage to publish it herself under the umbrella of her store, Shakespeare and Company. Maher describes the relationship between Beach and her longtime lover and soulmate Adrienne Monnier, who also owned a bookstore and shared her passion for literature. This romantic historical fiction provides a most engaging glimpse into the Lost Generation as it may have been experienced by some literary icons.