Daily Express

Love is in the air so will Frank finally find happiness?

- VANESSA BERRIDGE

THE MUSIC SHOP by Rachel Joyce Doubleday, £14.99

FRANK is a man on the run. He appears to be settled, selling vinyl records on a small parade of shops in an unnamed cathedral city but deep down he is trying to outrun long-buried emotions.

His music shop is something of a drop-in centre and he instinctiv­ely knows the music which will help his customers with their problems, whether sleep deprivatio­n or shopliftin­g. Now aged 40 he has an eccentric group of friends and an enthusiast­ic but hapless assistant, Kit. His life seems to be moving along on an even keel until Ilse Brauchmann, a woman with dark luminous eyes and a pea-green coat, faints outside his shop.

Meeting Ilse opens the floodgates on Frank’s own emotions and forces him to confront past unhappines­s. As he struggles with the legacy of an unconventi­onal and unhappy childhood his friend, a former priest, points out that Frank’s care for others is a means of keeping his own feelings at bay.

Frank is fighting other losing battles. Record companies won’t sell him vinyl records unless he starts stocking CDs. And the shopkeeper­s of Unity Street are living on borrowed time as property developers want to buy them out. The florist, the baker and the undertaker­s all depart, leaving just Frank, Father Anthony’s religious knick-knack shop and Maud’s tattoo parlour.

Ilse is increasing­ly drawn back to the shop and proves a dab hand at mending the things that Kit breaks. She is as attracted to Frank as he is to her but both are too damaged to reveal their feelings. Instead they meet weekly in a teashop by the cathedral to talk about music, with Frank attempting to explain its importance.

Ilse also has a big secret in her life and when it is revealed Frank is completely thrown. A further disaster ensues, making it seemingly impossible for them to find their way back to one another.

Rachel Joyce, following the success of earlier novels including The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry, has crafted a tender novel about heartache and redemption, full of humour and perceptive observatio­ns. It has a filmic quality with its romantic chases and dramatic set pieces. And woven through the whole narrative is music, like the soundtrack to a film. “For Frank, music was like a garden – it sowed seeds in far-flung places.” This book may well achieve the same effect and will certainly make a heartwarmi­ng holiday read.

 ??  ?? RECORD TIME: Vinyl nostalgia
RECORD TIME: Vinyl nostalgia
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