The Lost Manuscript

When I checked for what genre was suggested for Cathy Bonidan's The Lost Manuscript, I was kind of surprised to not see  'mystery' listed as one of the choices. Some listed chick lit, a genre that I would not personally consider for this novel. Maybe romance... but chick lit? I went with contemporary fiction instead. Probably epistolary is  the better choice since The Lost Manuscript is a novel told through letters and the infrequent email.

I've probably mentioned before that I love epistolary fiction. I love receiving letters. I love letter writing. And I love reading letters. Which made this a good fit for me.

Anne-lise discovers a manuscript in the nightstand of a small hotel in Brittany, France while on a family getaway from Paris. She reads the manuscript and is intrigued. The novel resonates with her. She notices the style difference between the first half of the novel and the second half. She also discovers an address on a scrap of paper towards the middle of the novel. She assumes that the author lost the manuscript, possibly years ago because it was typewritten, and must be looking for it. So, after making a copy of the manuscript for herself, she sends the original off to the address that she came across, along with a letter.

The manuscript actually finds its way to the original writer and a correspondence begins between Anne-lise and the author. He lets her know that he lost the manuscript while on a trip from France to Montreal. He also confirms that he didn't write the second half of the novel. In the interim, someone else finished it for him. Anne-lise is now determined to discover who completed the novel. By tracking back to see who left the manuscript in the nightstand, and who had it before that, and who had it before that... 30 years back... she attempts to solve the mystery.

In the process, the correspondence between Anne-Lise and the author grows. Relationships are developed between Anne-Lise and the people she tracks the manuscript back to as well as amongst  the group that she is assembling. The story evolves as the relationships and correspondence grows. It was a true pleasure to read this novel. And yes, at  the end, you do find out who penned the second half of the manuscript. And why.

I only gave this 4-stars for two reasons. At times the language became a bit too flowery which I guess is because I read it in translation. And because I was unfamiliar with the different parts of France, until I took out a map and marked all the locations in the story, I had trouble placing where some of the "action" took place. Both are faults of mine and not the authors.