A Parisian woman, Anne-Lise Briard is on holiday and while she's looking for something to read, finds an anonymous manuscript in the bedside drawer of the hotel. She falls in love with the story, but has no idea of the adventure she's about to take and the people she's going to meet. THE LOST MANUSCRIPT (St. Martin's Press) by Cathy Bonidan is a story of nearly a dozen people, mostly strangers who come together and through letters become friends. It's a novel for readers who love the written word and believe letters and books can create magic and heal people.
Anne-Lise sends a letter and a copy of the manuscript to the enclosed address and discovers its the writer, Sylvestre Fahmer. He says he wrote the first half thirty years ago, but doesn't know who wrote the second half and the little poems in the margins. He apparently left it in the Montreal airport, gave up writing and is now suffering from depression. Anne-Lise and Sylvestre begin a relationship through letters and it gives him some hope. They will solve this mystery together.
Once they start sending letters and meeting others on the search, she discovers people have been touched by this manuscript. People involved discover long-lost love stories, intimate secrets, feel less alone in their loneliness and their lives are made better.
The authors of the second half and poems are eventually discovered at the end. THE LOST MANUSCRIPT will hook you at page one, so be ready to read straight through when you pick it up.
"Once we've reached the last page, we feel more vulnerable to beauty. We look at the people we pass with an unusual benevolence that extends to our own reflection. I understand that this story helps us to smile and to put perspective of those trivial things that have the power to weigh us down." ~THE LOST MANUSCRIPT.
Thanks to St. Martin's Press for the book in exchange for an honest review.
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