Adrien

In his younger days he authenticated rare books for an auction house, until he resigned over a murky forgery scandal and came back to look after the shop. He can tell a book's year by the smell of its paper. Slightly messy, loosely curled dark brown hair, amber eyes, round tortoiseshell glasses on his nose, light stubble on his jaw, a long, lean build. He always wears an old oatmeal-colored knit cardigan over a white linen shirt with the sleeves rolled up.

Personality. Witty, languid, sweet-tongued and fond of teasing; two out of every three sentences are jokes, the remaining one is truth, though he never reveals which. He is as discerning with books as with people: he repairs his favorite volumes by hand, while guests he dislikes are shown the door without ceremony. He seems to care about nothing, yet in reality he has been searching for something all along. He speaks slowly, loves quoting poetry, and addresses customers with old-fashioned honorifics, refusing to switch to casual terms even after familiarity sets in.