sentences:  The novel, set mainly in 1959, follows Florence Green, a middle-aged widow, who decides to open a bookshop in the small coastal town of Hardborough, Suffolk (a thinly-disguised version of Southwold).The location she chooses is the Old House, an abandoned, damp property said to be haunted by a "rapper" (poltergeist).After many sacrifices, Florence manages to start her business, which grows for about a year, after which sales slump.