Today I’m excited to be featuring, A Book in Time which is the story of the life of a book as it passes through many hands (some of them quite famous in the literary world) over time.
Here’s an excerpt:
I was conceived in a hot bath in Deal and born, twelve months later, on a mahogany table in Holt. My mother was called Emily Swanson. She was eighty-seven years old when she
finally delivered me. She was so overcome that from that day forth she often held me to her chest as she shuffled about the cottage. When she looked at me it was impossible not to notice the adoration in her eyes. Sometimes she would bow, her skin wrinkled like the pages of an antique book. Then she would kiss me.
Once, when a howling wind was buffeting the windows of the cottage, and the flames were
trembling in the guttering candles, she held me so close I thought I was going to disappear
into her heart. When at last she separated me from her heaving chest she stared and stared at me, her head shaking from side to side and her eyes filled with a melancholy beyond the reach of words. Then a tear formed in her left eye, filling the lens until it spilled from her cheek and fell upon my front.
I thought my spine would break.
My mother lived for just six months after she had brought me into the world. In that time
visitors came to pay homage. Young lovers and old lovers and enough blue-stockinged
women to fill a library. They journeyed through any weather. When they stood within our
panelled parlour room, they strove to outdo one another with their praise.
“You are an emancipator,” one said.
“The bravest of women,” another added.
“A connoisseur of love,” a third exclaimed.
Thanks to Love Books Tours for the gifted copy.
I love the cover of this one… what’s your favorite cover this year?
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