The Lost Manuscript (Bonidan)

Part way through the manuscript there is an address. Anne-Lise sends the manuscript to the address assuming it belongs to the author, and that they left the manuscript at the hotel by accident. The address was indeed that of the author, and he writes back thanking her for returning his manuscript that he lost 30 years ago while on a flight to Montreal, Canada … and he also reveals that he was not the author of the second half of the manuscript.

After this revelation, Anne-Lise makes it her mission to track down the second author, retracing the steps the manuscript has taken over the past 30 years. Along the way Anne-Lise and Sylvester (the original author) meet several people who have, at one time or other, had possession of Sylvester’s manuscript, have read it and claim it had a profound impact on their lives. Friendships are formed, new love interests are found, and an amazing story of how this manuscript ended up where it did, all wrapped up with a plot twist that will make you smile.

I love the premise of this story and enjoyed listening to it. It is an epistolary novel (told in the form of letters back and forth between the characters) which made it a little harder to listen to. Reading it in print may have been easier. I also think it would have been nice if the print copy (which although I didn’t read, I did look at) would have included a map so the reader could get a better visual of the trek this manuscript had taken.

Title: The Lost Manuscript
Author: Cathy Bonidan
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Release Date: January 12, 2021 (January 17, 2019)
Format: Print, ebook, eaudio
Pages: 288

The Lost Manuscript is a charming epistolary novel about the love of books and magical ability they have to bring people together.

When Anne-Lise Briard books a room at the Beau Rivage Hotel for her vacation on the Brittany coast, she has no idea this trip will start her on the path to unearthing a mystery. In search of something to read, she opens up her bedside table drawer in her hotel room, and inside she finds an abandoned manuscript. Halfway through the pages, an address is written. She sends pages to the address, in hopes of potentially hearing a response from the unknown author. But not before she reads the story and falls in love with it. The response, which she receives a few days later, astonishes her...

Not only does the author write back, but he confesses that he lost the manuscript 30 years prior on a flight to Montreal. And then he reveals something even more shocking--that he was not the author of the second half of the book.

Anne-Lise can't rest until she discovers who this second mystery author is, and in doing so tracks down every person who has held this manuscript in their hands. Through the letters exchanged by the people whose lives the manuscript has touched, she discovers long-lost love stories and intimate secrets. Romances blossom and new friends are made. Everyone's lives are made better by this book--and isn't that the point of reading? And finally, with a plot twist you don't see coming, she uncovers the astonishing identity of the author who finished the story.

Find this title in the CRDL Catalog