Smile with the books

A small book on the roadside saves a whole day from darkness. Alexis, the survivor who lost the language of joy, discovers in a free library boxes of stories and a home for the first smile. Solin, a traveler on her bicycle, follows open libraries and leaves on the gravel phrases that remind strangers that life always has a door that opens from the side of books. Ida, the grandmother who breaks the molds, reads aloud to soothe the night. And Grégoire, the builder who hangs huts between trees, learns to also hang sentences about life. In the countryside of Dordogne, a tree and a shelf coexist, and a step of tools and a recovered book. Every exchanged book becomes a small bridge between four wounds learning to live together: a voice message retrieved, a colored pebble discovered, an old journey carrying a message that touches the heart; and from page to page, a Quranic house is formed that accommodates everyone. Here, books are not only read, but used to reconstruct meaning: to ease guilt, to bring the absent closer, and to create a family around a story. Smile with books, not only as a beautiful advice but as a way of salvation: to smile at the shelves, so stories respond with a wider smile, and guide us on the way when the world narrows. This is a novel about the power of reading when it becomes a way of life, and about books as an alternative energy for the soul.