The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain

First published in France as La femme au Carnet rouge, The Red Notebook is a story of 2 people who are brought together by destiny.

When bookseller Laurent Letellier finds an abandoned handbag on his journey to work at his bookshop Le Cahier Rouge, he has no idea how much of a feature the handbag will become in his life over the next few weeks.

After trying to hand it into the police, Laurent decides to find the owner of the bag himself, but as he resolves to opening the bag and looking through its contents, he wonders if it’s really the best thing to do.

However, having looked through the bag and finding nothing to identify the owner, Laurent is at a loss and while it doesn’t help him in his search, he becomes intrigued by a small red moleskin notebook filled with thoughts, lists and memories.

Despite knowing nothing about the owner, as Laurent reads through her thoughts, he decides she is just the kind of lady he would like to meet and with a signed copy of a book whose author is difficult to contact in her bag, he knows they would have plenty in common.

But with nothing to go on apart from a few personal items and a red notebook, where would Laurent even start in his search for the owner of the bag?

There was something about the cover of this book which made me want to read it and I’m glad I did as it filled me with hope that there’s a man out there for me with similar hopes and dreams.

Despite an initial anxiety that I wouldn’t get into the story – as it was originally written in French, a few pages in I couldn’t put this book down and was firmly attached to it until the very last page.

Although unrealistic, but delightful to think about, I enjoyed this book and could read it again and again.