The Bookseller: A Novel - Softcover

A provocative and hauntingly powerful debut novel that will keep you turning pages into the early hours, The Bookseller follows a woman in the 1960s who wrestles to reconcile her daily life as a single bookstore owner with the alternate reality she suddenly begins to dream about each night, in which she is a happily-married wife and mother.

Description
Denver, 1962: Kitty Miller loves her unconventional life. She runs Sisters Bookshop with her best friend, Frieda, and, unmarried, enjoys a bohemian freedom that allows her to do what she wants, when she wants. And then the dreams begin.

Denver, 1963: Katharyn Andersson is married to Lars, the love of her life. They have beautiful children, an elegant, modern home, and an active social life. The only hitch: this world only exists within Kitty Miller s dreams.

The more Kitty dreams, the more real her dream-world seems, and the more reluctant she is to leave it. But where is Frieda in her dream-world, and the other people from her actual life? Can she choose which life she wants? If so, what is the cost of staying Kitty, or becoming Katharyn? And how do we know where in our own lives the boundaries lie between what we imagine and what is real?

Cynthia Swanson is a writer and a mid-century modern designer. She has published short fiction in 13th Moon, Kalliope, and Sojourner, among other periodicals; her story in 13th Moon was a Pushcart Prize nominee. She lives in Denver, Colorado, with her husband and three children. The Bookseller is her first novel.