The Bookstore Sisters by Alice Hoffman

First Sentence: The letter to Isabel Gibson arrived on a Tuesday, which had always been the unluckiest day of the week.

Isabel Gibson had left Brinkley’s Island, Maine, far behind and is now living in New York City. Her parents are dead, the family bookstore is nearly bankrupt, and she has broken completely from her sister, Sophie. Still, she can’t ignore the letter which draws her back to the Island, and to the past.

Isabel is a character with whom many may easily identify—“She could even forget that she had once been considered the girl most likely to become somebody when she’d turned out to be nobody in particular.” Many may also identify with being estranged from their family or a family member. Hoffman conveys that situation very well.

As a lover of books, one desperately wants to get their hands on the bookshop and straighten things up. There’s a sense that, as with the relationship of the two sisters, it had once been wonderful. The question is whether it could be again. And then there is Violet, Sophie’s daughter who doesn’t like to read yet compares Isabel to Mary Poppins; Hank the Labrador, and Johnny Lenox, Isabel’s childhood friend growing. Of those, Sophie can be irritating, as she is always in tears. However, the letter from her mother that Isabel finds is worth shedding a few tears over.

THE BOOKSTORE SISTERS is a quick read filled with lots of very good truths. It’s a lovely little, short story, sometimes reading a bit juvenile, but with a good lesson to be learned.


THE BOOKSTORE SISTERS (ShortStory-Isabel Gibson-Maine-Contemp)
Alice Hoffman – Short Story
Amazon Original Stories – Nov 2022
RATING: G+/B+