When Robinie woke up from her sleep, the sun was setting above the sea of clouds, glowing brightly.
She stared at the sea of clouds for a while, then lazily took out her mobile phone in airplane mode and looked at the downloaded document. She took a look at it with her hands. To her surprise, this line of text looked like a book translated into Chinese. The translation between the lines
The accent was very familiar to her.
Is this an English book?
Robin thought carefully and turned the text to the beginning, ""84 Charing Cross Street"". Robin didn't remember such a book. Could it be a new book she hadn't bothered to read?
She has been busy with lawsuits during this period and has neglected her work a lot. It is normal not to know about the new book. However, there is a lag in translation. Except for popular or academic works, there are almost no books translated into Chinese in a short period of time.
.
The editor asked her if she had any copyright issues——
Robin thought it was probably a folk translator who translated this book into China.
She was very puzzled. This was an epistolary novel. She didn't know what was so good about this book. When she woke up and had nothing to do, she simply read it, moved her fingers downwards, and said, "For my big devil." It was incomprehensible.
She continued to scroll down.
"Gentlemen: I saw your advertisement in the "Saturday Literary Review". It said that you "specialize in out-of-print books." The other word "antiquarian bookseller" always scares me away, because I always think: since
"Ancient" must also be "expensive". And I am just a poor writer with an "ancient" appetite for books..."
When Robinie saw this, she roughly understood that this was a book of letters between readers and booksellers.
The humor of the sender made her raise her lips slightly. As someone who is half an editor, she is naturally interested in books, and is really a little curious about the bond between readers and booksellers.
When Frank, the bookstore manager, found some of the corresponding books and sent the books and responded to the letter, Robin felt warm in his heart. This must be the trust between book lovers, which made him unsuspecting of people thousands of miles apart.
I sent the book without receiving any money.
In that era of relying on letters and waiting slowly, such trust and waiting were precious. But now with mobile phones and the Internet, trust is decreasing. Her marriage is dying due to the constant erosion of trust.
of.
They are suspicious of each other, they are noisy, and they turn the secrets, taboos and rebelliousness that they once shared and knew most intimately into each other's chests with knives, and in the end they are all bruised.
Before taking the plane, Robin kept asking what marriage was——
She rubbed her head irritably and continued reading. The relationship between Helian and Frank was slowly getting closer. When she saw Helian complaining about the New Testament, she smiled knowingly. When she saw Helian sending letters to Frank and the others,
After sending gifts, they wrote a special letter to worry about their customs. Unknowingly, the two of them have become friends who can joke around freely, so much so that Helen spurred Frank in the letter: "Frank! What are you doing? I
I didn’t receive anything! Are you fooling around?”
When seeing Hai Lian selecting a collection of love poems, Robin discovered that they had the same taste.
"He had the first edition of "On the Great Learning" for only six dollars, and he actually asked me if I wanted to buy it! I really don't know whether to call him honest or stupid."
Miss Hailian is getting more and more naughty.
Robbeni also gradually discovered that books serve as a bond that connects Frank and Helene more closely. They chat about books, their covers, and send photos to share their lives. Helene sends food to Frank's family who are short of supplies; she packs books
They discussed the contents of the pages, shared recipes for Yorkshire pudding, and even prayed for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Coincidentally, Robinie also likes this team.
However, they are no longer in Brooklyn.
Hailian said in the letter: "I like old books with titles on the title page and full of notes on the margins; I love the kind of books that I read with my predecessors who have a close connection with each other, sometimes feeling sad, sometimes being reminded of their fate.
Feel……"
In Robin's mind, she could even picture the smiles on their faces when they sent letters to each other, and the knowing smiles when they received the letters. Twenty years of life may have been gloomy or hopeless, but between the letters back and forth, life changed.
Color turns life into poetry.
Helen even regarded the bookstore as her own. When a friend had the opportunity to go to London and described the bookstore to her in a letter, Helen said: "I don't want you to think that I am sour grapes, but I really don't understand.
How virtuous and capable are you? God allows you to browse "my bookstore"; and why do I have to squat in a shabby apartment on Ninety-fifth Street, immersed in writing this shitty book "Ellery"
·The Adventures of Quinn" TV series script...:"
Robinie frowned slightly. She had never heard of "The Adventures of Ellery Queen". It seemed that the author of this book was at least very familiar with the background of the book. Otherwise, it would be difficult to understand these things.
The depiction is lifelike.
Gradually, through the exchange of letters, the clerk, Frank's wife, and neighbor Bolton all got in touch with Helian. But what contained the most content was Helian's love and complaints about books. They called her the "Big Sloth", "Dear Helian,"
It was signed "Miss you, Frank", just as Helene said in her letter, "You are the only person left in the world who understands me."
In the book, Helene never forgets "her bookstore" every year, and the Frank family and the entire bookstore are also looking forward to Helene's arrival in London, saying that "there will be a room at 37 Oakfield Lane that can be used for you indefinitely."
Place to stay.”
However, just when Robinie thought they would finally meet, Frank died of illness.
In twenty years of friendship, Helen had never met Frank. She watched many British movies to see the street scenes in London; she said that she wanted to pursue British literature. However, the kind man who sold her the book...
died.
"If you happen to pass by 84 Charing Cross Street, please give her a kiss for me. I owe her a lot..."
When Robin read this, she was standing outside the airport. She looked at the rising sun and the busy streets. She felt lost for a moment, as if she had experienced a beautiful dream and now woke up from it.
She suddenly didn't know where to go, and all the strategies she had made before arriving were in vain.
She also wanted to step on the dusty pavement... walk through Berkeley Square and Wombard Street; be in St. Paul's Cathedral where John Donne preached; sit in front of the Tower of London where Elizabeth refused to be a prisoner.
On the steps...
Now--
Robin stopped a taxi, got in and told the driver, "Go to 84 Charing Cross Street."
She turned on her phone in the car and turned off the airplane mode. A message from the editor popped up on the chat software: "Is it a foreign work? Who is the author?"
In the Chinese version that Luo Beini saw, the author's column was anonymous. She thought she didn't know the author, so she told the editor to check it out.