A. J. Fikry, owner of Island Books on Alice Island, Massachusetts, has been having “a no good, very bad” couple of years.  First the love of his life, his wife, died in a tragic traffic accident.  Then came the economic downturn and the rise of ebook sales which cut into the books store’s already narrow profits.  In addition, one of his most reliable publisher reps has  been replaced by Amy Loman, a 31 year old woman, who in A. J.’s opinion, is completely not up to the task of supplying him with the correct types of books for his unique bookstore. Struggling to hold onto the bookstore, his last remaining connection to his wife,  A.J. comforts himself with the fact that if all else fails he still has the rare edition of Edgar Allan Poe’s poems that he can sell to keep afloat. Then even that is taken from him in an apparent robbery and instead something totally life changing is left in his book store instead and A. J. is forced out of his small narrow ways  into making connections and relationships that he would never have experienced but for the gift left behind in his store.

Following A. J. as he negotiates his way into a new life, we encounter many wonderful characters like Amy Loman the new publisher’s rep who challenges A. J.’s most tightly held ideas about books and what will sell in his store, or Officer Lambiase who investigates the robbery at the bookstore and who begins to appreciate books in a new way, and Ismay and Daniel Parish who are A,J.’s in-law’s, all who in one way or another force A.J. from merely existing into fully embracing life.

Zevin has created a quiet little masterpiece; a mediation on the value of books and a life of reading:  “Why is any one book different from any other book? They are different, A.J. decides, because they are. We have to look inside many. We have to believe. We agree to be disappointed sometimes so that we can be exhilarated every now and again.”  But it is also a parable about how love changes us, forcing us to connect and not be alone. “It is the secret fear that we are unlovable that isolates us, but it is only because we are isolated that we think we are unlovable. ..And someday, you do not know when, …[y]ou will be loved because for the first time in your life you will truly not be alone. You will have chosen to not be alone.”

Brenda’s Rating: *****(5 Stars out of 5)

Recommend this book to: Keith, Sharon, Marian and Lauren

Book Study Worthy: Yes

Read in ebook format.