The Red Notebook

Antoine Laurain is the author of five novels which have been translated into numerous languages. This one is translated from the French by Emily Boyce and Jane Aitken.  Former financier turned bookstore owner, Laurent Letellier, finds an elegant woman's handbag lying on top of a street dumpster. Inside are lots of intriguing personal items but all identification is missing. Although the obvious path would be to simply turn it over to the police--which he does initially try to do--he undertakes to find the owner of the handbag using the bag's contents as clues. Eventually he tracks her down, Laure Valadier, only to find that she has been hospitalized in a coma for several days, having been the victim of a mugging. He pretends to be her boyfriend when questioned by the man looking after her cat, and even volunteers to feed the cat himself while Laure's friend is out of town. Thus does Laurent come to be acquainted with a woman who he has never met. He realizes, of course, that his behavior is somewhat bizarre and eventually he leaves the handbag, along with her dry cleaning that he picked up in the course of his search, and a note, but no contact information. Once home, Laure, learns what she can about her mysterious benefactor and seeks to find him, with no success. Laurent's 15-year-old daughter, Chloe, takes it upon herself to find Laure and give her the option of meeting Laurent. The pursuit of Laure feels a little bit obsessive at times, but ultimately Laurent is a good and decent man who has gone a little overboard in doing a good deed. It's a happy ending. I really liked this review from The Telegraph.