The Bookbinder

The Lost Bookshop meets The Tattooist of Auschwitz Forty-four books bound in red, green or blue leather, each one no bigger than a pack of cards.Each one had a name embossed on its cover: Mina, Georgy, Samuel, Suzanne, Max… Each one was unique, like the story inside it… When journalist Anna types the last letter of the article she’s been writing she thinks that’s the end of the story.Of her story. Of Leon’s. Most importantly, of the children’s whose lives had been devastated 80 years before.But little does she know, the journey is just beginning. Léon Fortel, the latest in a long line of Fortel bookbinders, has been dedicated to a craft that dates back centuries – lovingly and painstakingly building whole universes out of paper and leather, and gold foil, before watching them leave his shop and make their way into the world.Now, though, the books are coming back. Pocket-sized, jewel-coloured and leather-bound. Forty-four stories. Forty-four lost childhoods. Crafted with the sole purpose of bringing them all together again, if that was in fact even possible after so long.The end is now in sight. The end of the journey of the books and the children inside them.The end of at least part of their suffering…