Bringing Home the Birkin by Michael Tonello

BHTB is a chick-lit novel, although at first glance it violates a few standards of the genre.  It is not written by a woman and involves stalking a handbag not a man. Nonetheless, there is sufficient shopping, girl chat, and glamorous travel to satisfy the chick-lit aficionado. 

BHTB is the story of Michael Tonello, an expatriate American, who from his apartment in Barcelona makes a fine living buying and re-selling expensive and elusive Hermes Birkin bags. Having stumbled on this money-making venture by accident, Michael soon develops a disciplined strategy that includes a Birkin buying uniform,  Birkin buying script, Birkin buying  helpers, 20 plus credit cards, and written profiles of Hermes store employees. When he realizes that the fabled two- year waiting list for a bag is merely a marketing ploy, Michael cheerfully ransacks Hermes stores from Lyon to Buenos Aires. And along the way he finds romance, so it is a chick-lit novel after all.