Librería Samer Atenea
Librería Aciertas (Toledo)
Kálamo Books
Librería Perelló (Valencia)
Librería Elías (Asturias)
Donde los libros
Librería Kolima (Madrid)
Librería Proteo (Málaga)
The owner of the bookshop THE VERB TO BE is a red-haired giant imprisoned in an enormous body and his solitude. One wet afternoon driving a vanload of new and second-hand books tienneVollard knocks down and seriously injures a little girl va. In the hospital he meets va’s mother Th r se a struggling single parent who lacks maternal instincts and whose dream is to be faraway alone. Both are haunted by guilt: Th r se because of her lateness in collecting her daughter and Vollard because he did not manage to stop his car on time (even if he knows that he could not have avoided -va: indeed she seemed to throw herself in front of the car). Vollard visits va regularly while she is in a coma and reads books to her while Th r se spaces her visits out. When va eventually wakes up she has become mute and is terribly weakened. A few weeks after va has been sent to a rehabilitation centre in the Massif de la Chartreuse Th r se gets a job faraway and asks Vollard to visit her daughter on her behalf. Soon Vollard enjoys their walks in the mountain where he tells her stories and poems he has memorized and tries to break her out of her mute impassive shell. However nothing seems to help 'La Petite Chartreuse' - Vollard calls va that way in reference to the monastic order of the Chartreux - to enjoy life again. She becomes weaker everyday to such a point that Vollard decides to find Th r se and to take her back to her daughter before it is too late . . .
