Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Pushkin Press, and author Antoine Laurain for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

The Red Notebook is the third book I have read by Antoine Laurain. He’s a French writer, and three of his books were recently translated into English and published. I have to say I enjoy his flair for writing very much, and it’s not even my usual categories of books I pick up.

Laure Valadier is on her way home one night when her purse is stolen. In the struggle with her assailant, she hits her head. Without the purse, she has no money and no way to get into her apartment. She begs the clerk at a small hotel across the street from her apartment to give her a room for the night, and she will pay them back later. The next day, the hotel staff finds her in a coma.

Laurent Letellier is a bookstore owner who comes across an abandoned red purse on top of a garbage bin. He’s tempted to just leave it to be thrown away, but something nags at him, and he takes the purse into his apartment. Of course, there’s no wallet or phone, that having been taken by the mugger. Laurent pores through the purse’s contents, trying to get clues to who the owner is so he can return it.

If you believe the universe is at play to bring two people together, The Red Notebook will enchant you as it did me. Laure spends a great deal of time in the hospital. Her coworkers are the ones who notice her missing and learn where she is. They take care of her cat while she’s in the hospital. Meanwhile, Laurent is driven to try to find the purse’s owner, pursuing the slimmest of leads. It causes his girlfriend to break up with him, as she believes he is infatuated with someone he never met.

“Can you experience nostalgia for something that hasn’t happened? We talk of ‘regrets’ about the course of our lives, when we are almost certain we have taken the wrong decision; but one can also be enveloped in a sweet and mysterious euphoria, a sort of nostalgia for what might have been.”

The story is charming. It feels like fate is pushing the two of them together, but there are also obstacles. Laurent believes he has intruded too much on Laure’s life for various reasons. He is afraid to meet her face-to-face, preferring to be seen as a mysterious benefactor rather than face questions he thinks will be inevitable about his behavior.

The funniest part is Laure’s friend and co-worker, William, who was taking care of her apartment and cat while she was in the hospital. He becomes convinced he has had a paranormal encounter of sorts, or is feeling the after-effects of mushrooms he ate four years prior. Why? Well, read the story and find out.

The Red Notebook was by far the shortest of the three novellas I read by Antoine Laurain. I didn’t want it to end, as it provides closure, but it left me hanging as well. At the same time, this feels right when I reflect on the book. I will be looking for more of this author’s translated books. I enjoy his writing very much.