???? I didn't finish it. This was WAY too quirky for me. I do enjoy quirky books but this was out there! I could not follow the storyline and comments such as "a young woman with a spectacular body" was offensive to me. As advertised, I did not find it to be a fast paced comic mystery but, a slow, confusing tale of the history of "homeless books" that I did not care for.

This is a reverence to all non-published books. Most if not all authors put their heart into their writing and not being published is certainly frustrating.
The mystery isn't as surprising as it could be, though.
It's somewhat entertaining, but admittedly it would have been even more entertaining if I had known all the references.

Inspired by a Richard Brautigan short story, the librarian of the small town of Crozon in Brittany creates a sanctuary for manuscripts that have been rejected for publication. Years later, a young Parisian editor visiting her parents discovers this secret library and stumbles across a brilliant manuscript: The Last Hours of a Love Affair by Henri Pick, a now-deceased local pizza chef. But could a humble pizza chef have secretly been a genius novelist? As the novel becomes a surprise bestseller in France, more people begin to look into the mystery of Henri Pick to find out.

I read David Foenkinos’ novel Delicacy years ago and it’s a credit to his talent that he managed to enthral me - a guy who’s hardly read any romance novels and basically ignores that genre entirely - with his love story. So I was hoping for a similar experience with his latest, The Mystery of Henri Pick - and was unfortunately let down.

The premise is intriguing if you’re the bookish sort - which I am - and parts of it were interesting. Like the editor, Delphine, discovering the manuscript, how she met her authorial boyfriend Frederic, the occasional revelations about the people associated with the novel, and the growing public reaction to its publication.

But that’s just a small part of the novel - most of it is taken up with soap opera-esque digressions that are irrelevant to the overall story. Like Pick’s middle-aged daughter Josephine rekindling her romance with her ex Marc; Magali, the overweight, older librarian having an unlikely affair with a twentysomething Kurt Cobain-lookalike (that’s literally how he’s described!); and the journalist, Rouche, mooning over his dwindling literary fame. If that stuff was interesting, I would be more forgiving, but it isn’t.

Foenkinos also goes for one twist too many at the end. All that last twist does is underline how pointless it was to focus so much on certain characters’ stories if none of it had any bearing on anything.

Despite the occasional charming element, I was mostly bored with the rambling, often repetitive, and increasingly uninteresting narrative. The Mystery of Henri Pick was a disappointing read - I’d recommend checking out Delicacy instead for a better David Foenkinos novel.

This novel was originally published in France in 2016 by Foenkinos and the English translation is done in 2020 by Sam Taylor and we can only say thank you to Mr Taylor for the fine work that he did in translating this amazing tale from Foenkinos for the English speaking world to enjoy.

This book is the unravelling of the mystery of whether a certain Monsieur Henri Pick (now deceased) was indeed the author of a magnificent piece of literature that sweeps the world with its intense telling of the end of a love affair and the death of Russian author Pushkin. Delphine Despero is the editor who can spot a champion manuscript from amongst the piles and makes the great discovery of Picks book amongst the library of rejected manuscripts in the library in Crozon, and she falls in love with Frederic Koskas, author of the not so brilliantly received book The Bathtub. Taking the manuscript from the library back to her publishing house in Paris, she has it published, after convincing Picks widow that he did indeed write the book, there is cult-like regard for Pick writing the book and the story of the found manuscript as part of the mystic of the novel and a certain level of doubt that Pick was the author as he spent his life in relative obscure mediocrity, making pizzas and living his life with his small family in a small town in northern France. Along the way of the novel, we are privy to the effects that the publication of Picks book has on his family and the members of the town in which he resided which are far-reaching and powerful.

This novel is by turn painful and funny and insightful to the whims of human fancy. It is well-paced, never rushing the story but nor does it ever belabour any one storyline. It is clever in never revealing too much of the mystery and throwing in the odd red herring in the barrel to keep the reader guessing as to the truth behind the origins of the novel. Foenkinos creates an enigmatic story that keeps twisting and turning whilst exploring the publishing world and the gullibility of the buying public and explains why we can have 125 million copies sold of 50 Shades of Grey such as the like that E.L. James produced.

The Mystery of Henri Pick could be viewed as a kind of love story to the wannabe writers of the world and their unpublished pieces that are undoubtedly diamonds in the rough having been overlooked by the publishing world. Its power is in its ability to keep the revelation to the very last paragraphs and they leave the reader shouting with surprise and elation at knowing the truth which is completely unexpected and simply stellar.

Fun, engaging and entertaining, it is worthy of the investment of time to read.

<i>The Mystery of Henry Pick</i> is a pleasant work of fiction about the fortuitous discovery of a masterpiece in the rejected books section of a small-town library. Delphine Despero, an up and coming book editor, and her boyfriend Frédéric Koskas, an unknown author, find the book and its author and then promote the book to bestselling status. <i>The Mystery of Henry Pick</i> is written by David Foenkinos, a screenwriter and director who has 14 novels to his credit.

Jean-Pierre Gourvec is inspired to create “a library of rejected books” in Crozon, Brittany. Delphine Despero, a book editor, happens to spend all her summers at her parent’s home near Crozon. On one holiday with her boyfriend she learns of Gourvec’s library and they decide to visit. While browsing through the shelves they find what they feel is a potential masterpiece. Most amazingly, the author is a man who runs the local pizzeria and has never been known to read books. Henry Pick has died by the time Delphine goes looking for him and even Henry’s wife is surprised to hear he has written a book. Delphine and Frédéric use the circumstances surrounding locating the book to build its notoriety. In spite of all their best efforts there are still detractors in industry who feel that they must solve the mystery surrounding Henry Pick and his hard to believe literary triumph.

The novel is both informative and interesting. I now understand more about book promotion and how the content of a novel is not necessarily why books do well in the marketplace. Now awards, accolades, author notoriety, backstories and reviews make a lot more sense. Content wise, the many twists and turns are part of the book’s salvation and why it is so interesting.

This is a very pleasant story. Many sad people find consolation in each other’s company. Much like the rejected novels, many people who have been cast aside in previous relationships do eventually find happiness. Overall it is very uplifting.

Although overall, I like the novel, I do get lost in all the characters. There are too many side stories. I feel the novel can be shorter and just as effective.

I highly recommend this book to people love a pleasant story with twists and turns. I give it a 4 on 5. I want to thank Net Galley and Steerforth Press for providing me with a digital copy of the novel in exchange for a fair review

The mystery of Henry Pick is indeed a mystery which will keep you spellbound to the end. It is a fast paced story which takes a lot of turns. A failed writer and his wife, who is an assistant editor whose main job is to reject unsolicited scripts, stumble across a winning script at unlikeliest of the places. A library, meant for scripts which have been rejected by the publishers too many times for the author to give up and leave the script here probably as a pilgrimage to their writing. The script had name of a deceased local pizza maker who his family thought is not capable of writing even a sentence. Once the book is published, the world can neither get enough of the book nor of the life and times of this unknown and unlikely author.

The book impacts numerous lives negatively and positively with hundreds of curious readers suddenly pouring in this sleepy town changing futures of the inhabitants some who enjoy the limelight and some who avoid it.

This is a beautifully written book, characters who display deep thoughts and pragmatic reactions to situations. Sometimes the characters are too real for comfort of some readers and display flaws that we all have.