(above from top) The cover to the first Japanese edition of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, book by Robin Sloan, cover by Skyemma - and two other less interesting covers for Westerners.
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
It was a The New York Times Bestseller and a Winner of the Alex Award, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction, named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle - but I still need to recommend it to people I know who are pretty well-read but who have never heard of it. They don’t trust the title.
Described on Amazon as
The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon away from life as a San Francisco web-design drone and into the aisles of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. But after a few days on the job, Clay discovers that the store is more curious than either its name or its gnomic owner might suggest. The customers are few, and they never seem to buy anything―instead, they "check out" large, obscure volumes from strange corners of the store. Suspicious, Clay engineers an analysis of the clientele's behavior, seeking help from his variously talented friends. But when they bring their findings to Mr. Penumbra, they discover the bookstore's secrets extend far beyond its walls. Rendered with irresistible brio and dazzling intelligence, Robin Sloan's Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is exactly what it sounds like: an establishment you have to enter and will never want to leave.
I read in Sloan’s newsletter that “Last year, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore was optioned by a large and well-known TV network, and just recently that option was renewed. This is the third time Penumbra has been optioned, so I'm not holding my breath -- but I'm also not denying that it would be great fun to see a vision of that tall, narrow bookstore on the screen.”
