Chapter 2
Summary
- Hazel Linden spends her last day at Hogan’s Rare Book Shoppe in Bloomsbury, feeling melancholic and dramatic about leaving.
- She reflects on the rarity and meaningfulness of the books she has worked with and recalls her fun "going-away wake" the previous night.
- Her colleagues, Tim and Poppy, express bittersweet sentiments about her departure for a prestigious position at Sotheby's.
- Despite looking forward to her new job, Hazel feels mixed about leaving the comfort of Hogan's and her friends there, including the shop owner Edwin and Poppy, a war orphan.
- Edwin tasks Hazel with processing new arrivals before she departs, which is her favorite part of the job.
- Hazel meticulously catalogs new acquisitions including a first-edition Dickens, a Hemingway letter, Tolkien's The Hobbit, a Russell book with a WWII map dust jacket, and a fairy tale with original illustrations.
- She reminisces about her personal life, including plans to travel during a break before starting her new job and contemplating marriage with her partner, Barnaby.
- A man and a woman enter the shop looking for a rare Auden poetry edition. Hazel assists the man who intends to gift it to his lover for their wedding.
- Hazel's dear friend Kelty and her daughter, Midge, visit the shop to see Hazel on her last day, reinforcing her emotional ties to her current life.
- Excited for her future yet nostalgic, Hazel opens the last package to find a portfolio of enchanting hand-colored illustrations and a book titled "Whisperwood and the River of Stars" by Peggy Andrews.
- Hazel is taken aback as Whisperwood is a secret world she created with her sister, Flora, who she lost in the war. Whisperwood was their private escape during difficult times.
- Overwhelmed and in disbelief, Hazel speaks the name "Whisperwood" out loud for the first time in twenty years.