Link (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/04/RVGAOO8OM31.DTL&feed=rss.books)
The Secret of Lost Things
By Sheridan Hay
DOUBLEDAY; 354 PAGES; $23.95
This odd translation of Melville's metaphysical musings into the language of teenage ardor conveys both the charm of Sheridan Hay's first novel as well as its primary shortcoming. "The Secret of Lost Things" is the coming-of-age story of a Tasmanian girl who moves to New York alone after the death of her mother. She gets a job at the Arcade, a used-book store modeled on New York's famous and enormous Strand. There she meets, among others, George Pike, the meticulous, money-obsessed owner; Pearl, the transsexual cashier; and, most important, Walter Geist, Pike's troubled, albino assistant. Geist involves her in a scheme to acquire and sell a rare Melville manuscript, and so leads Rosemary to those remarkable letters.