I Met a Traveller in
an Antique Land, by Connie Willis (Subterranean Press).
This latest novella
from SFWA Grand Master Connie Willis offers a new take on the “magical
bookstore” story. Who among us hasn’t dreamed of wandering the aisles of the
Library of Alexandria or discovering a manuscript of Shakespeare’s lost Cardenio? Or a store where we can find
books so odd, so enchanting, that we can never return unchanged to our mundane
lives? (Actually, one could argue that all bookstores and libraries do this.)
One of my favorites is Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s The
Shadow of the Wind, in which a boy is taken into a library and allowed to
choose “his” book.
In her inimitable fashion, Willis draws us into a magical
realm coexisting with the drab life of an author on a book tour in New York
City. Tucked among the skyscraper office buildings, he stumbles upon a shop
named, oddly, Ozymandias Books. Any student of high school English will recall
the poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!Nothing beside remains. Round the decayOf that colossal Wreck, boundless and bareThe lone and level sands stretch far away.
Slowly the author is drawn into the store and its mysterious
workings, discovering on its shelves more and more obscure works (including the
aforementioned play attributed to Shakespeare). Even more puzzling is the way
the books are arranged, not by author or subject but by the disaster that
destroyed the last remaining copy…except the one he holds in his hands. (Nothing beside remains…)
I Met a Traveller in
an Antique Land is a delicious treat for readers and collectors, and a love song to those who treasure books.
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