by Kerri Maher
Fascinating historical fiction about Sylvia Beach, who started the bookstore Shakespeare and Company in Paris in the 1920s, and was single-handedly responsible for the publication of the novel Ulysses by James Joyce. I loved the setting of Paris during this time period, and the long list of literary characters including Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway and, of course, James Joyce. I also loved the issues and themes around same sex relationships, book banning, and feminism, which are so strikingly relevant a century later.