Like his father before him, Octavio runs the Notre-Dame bakery, and knows the secret recipe for the perfect Parisian baguette. But, also like his father, Octavio has never mastered the art of reading and his only knowledge of the world beyond the bakery door comes from his own imagination. Just a few streets away, Isabeau works out of sight in the basement of the Louvre, trying to forget her disfigured beauty by losing herself in the paintings she restores and the stories she reads. The two might never have met, but for a curious chain of coincidences involving a mysterious traveller, an impoverished painter, a jaded bookseller, and a book of fairytales, lost and found...
It is difficult for me to give this book a rating and the one person I've passed my copy to was not able to "get into it". It is a bit disjointed, and that may be frustrating, except I have patience which made me stick with this story and I'm glad I did. All the events that seem so random converge to a lovely conclusion. Life is random, life is chaotic, and all those random events often bring us to a certain point in our lives. I think this is what the author was trying to convey with the style of writing used in this novel. Frustrating, maybe, then so is life at times.
Have some patience, stick with this one to the end and you'll be delighted.
