The Echo of Old Books: A Novel

In September 1984, Ashlyn Greer, the owner of a rare books store, looks through a recent delivery of cartons in the backroom of a vintage boutique. Ashlyn has a special gift and can read the “echoes” left on books. She first discovered this when she was 12 and picked up a book in the bookstore she now owns, then run by Frank Atwater, only to feel an overwhelming sense of sadness. She later learned from Frank that the book had been donated by a woman whose nephew was killed in a car crash. After Ashlyn experiences this with other secondhand books, she finally confides in Frank, who suggests that books, like people, absorb things in the air around them, even feelings. With Frank’s help, Ashlyn discovers her gift is called “psychometry.”

Now, Ashlyn reads the vibrations of the books in the cartons and divines they belonged to a woman who was sick and worried about time running out. The cartons contain mostly novels, but Ashlyn finally chances upon a handbound, blue leather book, but it is missing an author’s name and copyright page; it only contains the inscription, “How, Belle? After everything…how could you do it?” (11). As soon as she opens the book, she feels a sharp and intense heartache emanating off of it with a masculine energy. Intrigued, Ashlyn takes the book home, determined to solve its mystery.

Ashlyn returns to An Unlikely Story, the bookshop she has owned for the past four years that has always felt like home. She reflects on how books have always been her safe place, especially in a life marked by tragedy: She grew up with an angry father and neglectful mother, the latter of whom died of cancer after refusing treatment, when Ashlyn was 15. Six months later, on Ashlyn’s 16th birthday, her father shot himself. Her grandmother then raised her, but Ashlyn was forever scarred by both parents having chosen to leave her.

After Ashlyn’s father’s death, Frank offered her a job in the bookshop, where Ashlyn learned to bind and restore books. The shop and the Atwaters’ apartment became her refuge, and she in turn became the daughter the Atwaters never had. After Frank died, he left the shop and apartment to Ashlyn. Now, after finishing up some work in the shop, Ashlyn heads to the apartment to begin reading Regretting Belle.

In a prologue dated 1953 and addressed to “Belle,” the unnamed author claims the book began as a cathartic letter in which he wrestled with Belle’s choices. She remains the biggest regret of his life, and he hopes to find some peace by reliving everything she did to him.

In August 1941, the author attends Belle’s engagement party at the St. Regis hotel in New York as the guest of one of the attendees, “a social climber on a mission” (25). He scans the crowd, which is composed of New York’s elite but conspicuously missing the Roosevelt clan. When he locks eyes with Belle, the two are immediately drawn to each other. The author approaches Belle to congratulate her on her engagement; she discovers he is a British writer in the States for “adventure,” though he doesn’t divulge more details.

The author remarks that Belle doesn’t seem thrilled about her engagement to Teddy, one of the most eligible bachelors in town. Belle is unsettled by this observation and further shaken when the author comments on the kind of crowd Teddy’s family surrounds themselves with. However, Belle disapproves when she learns that the author is here as Goldie’s guest, a woman who owns a series of tabloids and keeps the company of numerous younger men. The author notes that “people aren’t always who they pretend to be,” including himself (32). He moves away but is undeniably dazzled by Belle; ever since their first meeting, he thinks of her as the “belle of the ball” (32), thus birthing her nickname.

Ashlyn reads the first chapter three times but finds herself unable to move onto the second one. She wonders whether the book is memoir or fiction and knows it is not a good idea immerse herself in a tragic romance, considering her own past: Her ex-husband, Daniel, passed away unexpectedly before their divorce was finalized, following his recurrent infidelity. However, something about Regretting Belle speaks to her. Beneath the bitterness, betrayal, and grief in the echoes, Ashlyn senses a note of things left unfinished, to which she relates. Throughout the day, Ashlyn makes calls and inquiries about the book, but nobody has heard of it. Finally, she decides to read on.

A week after their first meeting, the author attends another dinner party given in honor of Belle’s betrothal. As he watches Belle, he tries to remind himself that being close to Belle is part of a larger plan, but he is smitten. At one point, the author manages to have a conversation with Teddy, and they discuss the ongoing situation of the war. Teddy opines that they ought not join the war and blames Jewish people for the current condition of the country, including the Wall Street crash. After managing to get a few introductions to some of Teddy’s father’s friends, the author quickly moves away.

At dinner, the author sits next to Belle and strikes up a conversation, though she is still disgusted that he is here with Goldie. They talk of the war, and Belle asserts that women are rarely asked what they think about such matters, surprising the author. He evades her questions about his work in the States but talks about his late father, a newspaperman who inspired him to write. The author steers the conversation to the horses Belle has apparently recently acquired, and while discussing Belle’s love for riding, the pair slip into flirting and innuendo. The conversation ends with the author taking Belle up on her bluff of joining her to ride the next day.

After reading the second chapter, Ashlyn gets a call from Kevin, the owner of the vintage boutique whom she had tried to contact the previous day, with news that he has received something of interest. Ashlyn heads over, and Kevin shows her an almost identical book to Regretting Belle, but titled Forever, and Other Lies, once again with the author and publisher missing. Kevin reveals that the man who had dropped off the first set of cartons came by with more.

Ashlyn asks for the man’s name or contact information, but Kevin doesn’t have any details. Back home, Ashlyn opens the second book to feel similar echoes of heartbreak and betrayal; however, the echoes are feminine and lean toward despair. The inscription inside reads like a response to the one in Regretting Belle: “How??? After everything—you can ask that of me?” (62).

Belle describes the night at St. Regis through her perspective. The party celebrates her engagement to Teddy, a man she has grown up with and is to marry—on her father’s arrangement—to merge the two families’ fortunes. She initially fought the engagement, not wanting to end up like her older sister, Cee-Cee, who was nothing but a “broodmare” in her own marriage. However, Belle’s father was unrelenting. He believed the marriage was necessary, as Teddy’s family pedigree would help elevate their own, Belle’s father having made his “new money” fortune through illegal Canadian whiskey.

Belle remembers meeting and being immediately drawn to the author of Regretting Belle at the party. She recounts their conversation, remembering how the writer told her that people, including himself, are not always what they seem; Belle wishes she had taken him at his word.

Belle recounts her second meeting with the writer, feeling unsettled by his unexpected presence at the dinner party; she is irritated that he is here with Goldie again. They are seated next to each other at dinner, and as the conversation turns to horses, Belle engages in clever double entendre, refusing to be underestimated and seen as a naive young girl. However, the writer calls her bluff, and she realizes she has been trapped into saying yes to a day of riding with him.

After reading a couple of chapters of Forever, and Other Lies, Ashlyn wonders whether the two books were published as companion pieces, in some form of metafiction. However, the echoes cannot be ignored, and they clearly speak to someone’s past heartbreak, prompting Ashlyn to consider that the story isn’t fiction.

Ashlyn calls up Ruth Truman, the public librarian, and tells her about the books. She describes Goldie and asks if Ruth can help determine whether such a woman existed in New York in the 1940s. Kevin comes by the store with some good news—he found a name and address on an envelope at the bottom of one of the cartons: “Richard Hillard. 58 Harbor Road. Rye, NH” (77). Ashlyn and Kevin divine that the young man who dropped off the cartons is Richard’s son; he mentioned the books belonged to his dad, who recently passed away.

Ashlyn finds a phone number for Richard Hillard and leaves a message, explaining who she is and that she has some questions about Richard’s books. His son, Ethan, calls back. He doesn’t know anything, but he is intrigued by Ashlyn’s interest in the books, especially as she doesn’t think they are monetarily valuable. However, the story doesn’t interest him; he reveals that he is a nonfiction writer and doesn’t read fiction. Ethan wishes Ashlyn luck with her sleuthing. Even as Ashlyn wonders about the futility of her search, she is drawn to read on.