The Bookshop
by Penelope Fitzgerald · 1978
Classics · ranked #47 in category
Florence Green decides to open a bookshop in a small Suffolk town in 1959. The town resists. Fitzgerald's very short novel is a study in quiet, devastating cruelty — how institutions, minor power and social habit conspire against someone who simply wants to do something good. One of the bleakest comedies in English fiction.
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The verdict
- Category
- Classics
- Author
- Penelope Fitzgerald
- Standing
- Essential Read
About Classics
The classics earned their place by surviving. These are the books that generations of readers have returned to because they remain useful — illuminating, moving and asking questions without easy answers.
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