84, Charing Cross Road

“Such a delightful reading experience . . . During Covid . . . everything was so chaotic and weird and depressing and lonely, and that book felt like the antidote to all of that.” —Virginia Evans, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Correspondent, on The New York Times Book Review podcast

A heartwarming love story about people who love books for readers who love books

This funny, poignant, classic love story unfolds through a series of letters between Helene Hanff, a freelance writer living in New York City, and a used-book dealer in London at 84, Charing Cross Road. Through the years, though never meeting and separated both geographically and culturally, they share a charming, sentimental friendship based on their common love for books. Discover the relationship that has touched the hearts of thousands of readers around the world, and was the basis for a film starring Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft.“I loved it and was so moved by it. . . . It was such a delight.” —Virginia Evans, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Correspondent, on the podcast Totally Booked with Zibby

“A real-life love story . . . A timeless period piece. Do read it.” ―The Wall Street Journal

“Those who have read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a novel comprised of only letters between the characters, will see how much that bestseller owes 84, Charing Cross Road.” —Medium.com

“[84, Charing Cross Road] will beguile an hour of your time and put you in tune with mankind. . . . It will provide an emollient for the spirit and a sheath for the exposed nerve.” —The New York Times

“A unique, throat-lumping, side-splitting treasure.” —San Francisco Examiner

“This book is the very simple story of the love affair between Miss Helene Hanff of New York and Messrs Marks and Co, sellers of rare and secondhand books, at 84, Charing Cross Road, London.” —Daily Telegraph (London)
Helene Hanff (1915–1997) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In the 1940s and ’50s she wrote plays and television scripts in New York City, but found little success until her best-known book, 84, Charing Cross Road, was published in 1970. The book was a smash hit and has been adapted for the radio, stage, film, and television.