The Red Notebook

The title alone intrigued me, given I keep a journal.  So I was curious to see what this book was about.  It came into my hands yesterday and I finished it last night and am throughly enchanted with it.

By Antoine Laurain, and translated from French, this slim, 159 page novel, makes for a quick read.  And a very enjoyable read because you want to see what happens when Laurent and Laure finally meet.  It all starts with a stolen purse...

Laure is mugged for her purse and winds up in the hospital.  Laurent discovers the bag and tries to find the owner.  As with most stolen items, there is no billfold with ID, nothing with an address, only bits and pieces of her life and the red moleskin notebook.  Laurent slowly pieces the bits together to find out who this woman is and to get her purse back to her.  Any more, and there would be major spoilers involved.

I now have to get a red moleskin journal.  I have had black ones in the past, but now I want a red one.  And to write in it in Paris.  Sipping a drink at a sidewalk cafe.  I think it's only right.