NIGHTFALL IN THE GARDEN OF DEEP TIME

In this fantasy, a bookstore owner discovers a magical portal to literary wonders.

Kelsey Willoughby is the owner of the Chestnut Street Book Emporium, though perhaps not for much longer. Business is slow; she’s behind on the property taxes; and an aggressive buyer is waiting in the wings to absorb the store into a planned hotel complex. The Emporium has been in the family for over 60 years, and Kelsey will feel as if she’s betrayed her declining Gran—the woman who raised her—if she sells the shop. Kelsey has tried everything to save the business, but she’s running out of ideas. “Stories have power, you know, Kelsey,” Gran tells her during a visit to her assisted living facility. “But perhaps you just need some inspiration. That’s what the garden is for.” Kelsey doesn’t know what garden Gran is talking about—until one night she sees something shimmering in the empty, walled-off lot beside the store. There, she finds an impossible, lantern-lit garden party attended by 50 costumed revelers who already seem to know her. In this enchanted garden, Kelsey finds not only an escape from the pressures of her real life, but also an opportunity to meet her long-dead literary heroes like Agatha Christie and T.S. Eliot. With their guidance, she maybe can become the storyteller she’s always wanted to be and even discover the secret about the parents she’s never known. The story, narrated by Kelsey, embraces its fantastic aspect, and even the more realistic spaces are rendered in dreamy, loose prose: “I lean against the counter and allow myself the luxury of scanning the bookshop, bathed in the honeyed afternoon sunlight spilling through stained glass windows set high in the wall to my right, above the murals of famous authors. Dust motes dance in sunbeams to the soft strains of Vivaldi, tiny Tinkerbells darting through Neverland.” Higley evokes a specific mood quite masterfully, transforming the experience of browsing in an old bookstore into a novel. It may strike some readers as overly cloying, but others will undoubtedly fall in love.

A cozy, atmospheric fantasy for bibliophiles.