The Lost Bookshop

Content Warning: This section contains brief mentions of rape and domestic abuse.

Madame Bowden asks about Martha’s life growing up, and she explains that she was always an outsider because of her ability to read people. Madame Bowden dismisses this as mere intuition, so Martha demonstrates by reading Madame Bowden’s feelings: “You are very, very old. Older than you seem. And you are afraid that you will be forgotten about” (294). Madame Bowden stops her quickly and admits she underestimated her.

That night, Martha finds more books on the branch shelf in her room: Dear Reader by Cathy Rentzenbrink, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, and Flowers in the Attic by V. C. Andrews. She feels that certain words in the titles speak to her: “Dear Reader / Go / In the Attic” (295). Following the message, she climbs the stairs toward the attic and finds a door she can’t open. When Madame Bowden hears her in the hallway, she gives up and goes back to bed.