I was overjoyed to find this at Shakespeare & Co in Paris, having heard so much about it on Bookcrossing; it is an old Penguin dated 1951 and marked 3/6 (I paid 5 euros!). I didn't even have to search, just looked at the shelves outside the shop and there it was.
So there's now a Shakespeare & Co stamp on the title page; the young guy at the cash desk asked me if I'd read it and told me it was one of his favourite books.

Isn't a book a wonderful thing. It can sit quietly on a shelf for 50 years, taking up just an inch of space. Then along comes someone who opens the covers (you don't even need a key) and out flies a whole family of engaging characters, laughter and tears, a lot of love and especially wisdom.
This must have been sitting there waiting for me to pick it up - things I have been thinking about quite recently turned up between the pages: the memory of generations held in the mind of a person who can neither read nor write, but remembers everything in folk tales and songs. Religious beliefs, the hard life of immigrants, education, the strength of women, the weaknesses of men, etc. etc.
I was intrigued by the tree - wondering what kind it could be. I googled images for Tree in Brooklyn, and up came Ailanthus altissima - the Tree of Heaven. The marvellous thing about this is that there are several in our garden! My landlady's "gentleman friend", who takes care of the gardening, keeps cutting them back, and says they grow like weeds. I always found them quite pretty and now I know they are trees of heaven, I will watch over them.

mailing this to a bookcrossing friend; even though this one is a book that "spoke" to me I feel ready to let it go, and not only because I found a hardback version. Coincidentally it is the 100th anniversary of the original Shakespeare & Co founded by Sylvia Beach on rue de l'Odéon, which was the inspiration behind Whitman's shop on the quai near Notre-Dame where I bought this.

Icila: I'm sorry the book is so old and tatty but it has a history!

Oh thank you over-the-moon, I'm really moved to receive this book so much charged with history. I already know that I w'll keep it as a jewel.
Thank you also for the beautiful cards and the decorative pendant.

I savoured this book. I couldn't tell better than you over-the-moon.
As a matter of fact an Ailanthus altissima grew one day in our garden in the parisian suburbs, very close to the house wall. It was said to be invasive but we cared for it nonetheless.
This special book w'll stay with me.