Gabrielle Zevin has written a delightful sweet story about a bookstore owner. The Storied Life of A J Fikrey, follows the widower book seller as he adjusts to the loss of his wife, the love of his life. He had fallen in love and moved to Alice Island where she grew up and they opened a bookstore there.
It is a ferry ride away from the mainland and relies on the tourist trade for their largest profits. Now he is depressed, drowning his sorrows in liquor and hoping to retire with the sale of a first edition Edgar Allen Poe book he found at a garage sale.
Then the book is stolen and a baby girl is left in his store. These two events completely change the course of his life. He must stay and continue to run the bookstore. He cannot bring himself to send the little two year old girl over to the foster system. He decides to keep her and bring her up as his own.
All these changes in his life also change him. He becomes a much more pleasant person. Making friends, loving Maya, the child. He even will be open to finding love again. OF course there is a side story of his sister in aw who is in a terrible marriage. The police chief becomes a reader and friend, he also had a bad marriage.
Such a wonderful examination of relationships, how to be a friend, a parent and a good lover. How to take care of yourself and change to the best you.
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