Every book holds a new adventure. And every bookstore is a maze with an infinite number of doors leading to it. And so, in Robin Sloan’s debut novel, does this adventure begin.
In 2008 San Francisco, Clay Jannon finds himself meditating about his doomed web-design career when he stumbles upon a job vacancy at the most peculiar store: Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore.
Its owner, Mr. Penumbra, is an unusual oId man with strange secrets. Picture a cozy, dark bookstore that endlessly stretches vertically, that sees few yet regular clients who only appear at the wee hours of the night borrowing books that have never been heard of. Indeed, the bookstore houses incomprehensible mysterious books that lead Clay and his friends to embark on a unique quest. They would discover an underworld literary society that spans the globe. However, this literary world is not to be taken for granted as it holds dark immortal secrets.
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore is a book you – the 21st century denizen – can relate to. Robin Sloan touches on the real to deliver us a beautiful ancient world; he manipulates all that’s at a common man’s disposal to gift us the extraordinary.
Geeks, dorks, nerds, and booklovers – this one’s for you. The novel mixes new and old: the traditional reading experience with the hyper-reality of ebooks, Google, Kindles, and Nooks.
This is a compelling read that will remind you of the exquisite sensation of holding an actual paperback, and immersing yourself within its pages.
E-Readers might be the future, but there is nothing like picking up a real book.
by Azza El Masri
