The Lost Bookshop

Content Warning: This section contains depictions of domestic abuse and death.

Henry comes to Martha’s window with coffee as a peace offering. He apologizes for not telling her about Isabelle sooner and asks if they can be friends. Martha agrees, and they talk about Opaline, the lost manuscript, and the mysterious bookshop. Henry says it’s odd for a woman who was clearly in the literary limelight to leave no record or trace of her existence. Martha mocks him for his lack of education about the general fate of women in historical records. Martha suggests that he stop focusing on the perspectives of men and start looking at the women, like Sylvia. Martha also tells him about the story she heard from Madame Bowden about a bookshop appearing and disappearing again.

Although Henry doesn’t tell Martha, he reflects on a similar experience. The first night he arrived in Dublin, he drunkenly wandered to Ha’penny Lane and into a bookshop. As he stood inside the bookshop it faded away, leaving him once again standing outside, the bookshop nowhere to be seen. He concluded that he must have been very drunk, but now he’s not sure.