The beautiful cover was only the first of many reasons to pick up this book.  The story takes place in my favorite Texas town – San Antonio.  Set in the early 1960s the conflict of race issues happening at that time are well represented and elaborated during this tale.  The entire story is a juxtaposition of what I did when I first saw this book – judge a book by its cover. 

The old-world style and manners are well embodied in the character of Cosimo.  Cosimo is a man who has lost just about everything in a foreign city yet still retains the heart of who he is.  At a time period when you could not make a simple international phone call to solve a problem, Cosimo used his wits and talent for making friends to deal with an almost impossible situation.  He represents the epitome of class as it has nothing to do with your wallet and everything to do with your character.  Meanwhile, at the local library, history is being made as integration enters the building, much to the chagrin of the librarian Ruthann who is a holdout from an earlier time.  A progressive boss and his addition of three part-time pages bring the current times crashing at her feet. 

At first glance the young pages are also not quite what they appear to be (are you getting this judging by the cover theme?) as each struggles to find their place in not only the library but their own lives.  Each intern or page represents a different aspect of society and yet they find a way to join forces despite the differences.

My favorite line in the book comes near the end – “We hardly did anything,” “Well, it must have felt like a lot to him,”. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it lives up to my first impression of the cover – sometimes, it looks like you can judge a book by its cover.

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