The Memory Bookshop

Life is full of difficult memories and some we visit often, but do we remember the memories accurately? Do we harbor regrets when we should focus on relationships and joys? The Memory Bookshop is such a story.  It is a story about the interconnectedness of human life and relationships.  

The Memory Bookshop is a story about a young woman who has been grieving the loss of her mother for a very long time. She  even considers suicide as she gets lost in the void of missing her mother and feeling guilty for the time she did not spend with her.                  Kim Jiwon-nim seeks help with a doctor to deal with her debilitating grief of her mother, seven years prior. The doctor's answer was to prescribe a medication. She leaves the clinic with her prescription and runs into a man yelling, "Help! Help!, Someone's dying!" The encounter upsets her and she feels her 5 minute encounter with the doctor and his prescription accompanied by the frantic man is a sign that she needs to throw away the medicine. She does, but she can't get the man out of her mind. She knows his existence must be important, he had acted as if he was in a dream...or a memory. 

Three weeks later she wonders whether she has made the right move with the medicine as her grief and insomnia continues. She goes out for a walk when she gets caught in a sudden rainstorm. She seeks shelter in a tattered building called the Giyeok Bookshop. Giyeok is the Korean word for memory. Everything begins to become clear as she peruses the store to find her favorite childhood books with well worn pages and other books with pristine pages that are catalogues of all  her memories throughout her entire lifespan. She meets Manager K, proprietor of the shop and finds that indeed the bookstore is filled completely  with books containing all of her life's memories. Manager K tells her that  she may revisit three moments of memories from her life.  If she makes a change then she will get to live with that new change, but each memory may shorten the time she has left on earth. And she may only travel further back each time, not forward in time.  She takes the opportunity and begins her journey back through some of her memories with her mother.  It is difficult, but she learns and grows, and each encounter does affect change.  

 Ki Jiwon-nim  finds healing for her grief, leaving the guilt and regrets behind and enjoying the positive memories and her future ahead of her.

The Memory Bookshop by Song Yu-jeong was first published in 2024 in Korea and will be released July 7, 2026 in its English translation by HarperCollins Publishers Inc.  I received an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. 

I wasn't certain exactly What to expect when I chose this book from NetGalley, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The story is a great reminder to revisit past memories but be careful to not dwell on the negative events and regrets for things that can not be changed.  Focus on the joy and love you remember from a lost loved one, and take that joy forth into your future.  

I give The Memory Bookshop four stars. 

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