Exchange - Paul Magrs

Simon’s life completely changed when his beloved parents were killed. Now living with his maternal parents, the shy sixteen-year-old has retreated deeper into the books he’s always loved, aided and abetted by Winnie, his book-loving grandmother, much to the irritation of his grandfather, whose fear and hatred of books grows throughout the tale. Every Saturday Simon and Winnie take a bus from their small British village and explore, looking for new charity and second-hand bookshops. When they discover The Great Big Book Exchange they know it’s amazing, like nothing they’ve seen before, but they don’t know how much it and the people they meet there – owner Terrance, with false arms and a tragic past, and his teen Goth assistant Kelly – will change their lives.
The book is a tribute to bibliophilia, with loving descriptions of books unread: “Their pages were onion-skin but perfect, as if they’ve never been read before. Others were reassuringly far and their spines were uncracked… bottle green detectives; scarlet translations of European classics; sickly yellow horrors and science fiction with covers that glittered midnight blue.”
A voracious reader myself (no surprise!), many elements of Exchange resonated with me, particularly Simon’s realisation that “I’ll never have enough time to read all the books I want to. Even if I read every hour, every day of my life… I’d still never read everything,” and the awareness that reading can be a way of escaping living in the world and distracting yourself from real life issues. And like me, Simon hates going anywhere without “the security of at least two novels… two, in case he finished the first. He needed to make sure he had enough to read…”
Magrs has an interesting voice, which I appreciated more here than in his later book, Never the Bride - I didn't realise it was the same author until I came to write the review and noted the unusual surname. In Exchange he writes in third person from Simon's perspective, allowing the reader to see the deterioration of his grandparent's marriage, fraught with long-repressed issues, while allowing Simon his innocence. The past has a strong presence, and Magrs' writing is deft and sure. It didn't change my life, but I enjoyed the journey, and think this could be a good book for shy and reclusive bibliophilic teens, particularly those who need a little encouragement to leave the safety of books, at least a little. - Alex