by Gabrielle Zevin
This is a book for lovers of books and bookstores. It is a gentle, loving story of a man and events that change his life.
A.J. is the owner of a small bookstore on an Island somewhere. Most of his business comes in the tourist season. A.J. is spiralling into despair after the death of his wife. He is drinking too much and not looking after himself.
His one love is books, serious literature. A young publishers agent comes to visit him and he is very rude to her.
One day A.J. is drunk and he leaves his prized possession, a rare book, unlocked. When he awakes his messy kitchen has been cleaned but the book is gone. Police searches turn up nothing.
A short time later A.J. returns to his store, which he has left unlocked, to find a toddler, abandoned by its mother. She leaves a note saying she wants her daughter, Maya, to grow up around books. Her body is later found, she drowned herself.
A.J. agrees to look after the child for a weekend, but he comes to love and cherish her and ends up adopting her. The description of how the little girl comes to do her job, reading the children's books in the store and then writing picture reviews of them is delightful. She also gives books to children so that their parents will be convinced to buy them.
A.J. also realizes he really likes the agent he was so rude to. He woes her and eventually they marry. They are having a very happy life, sadly A.J.'s sister-in-law is not. Her husband is unfaithful to her and we find out that Maya is actually a child from one of her husband's liaisons. She had stolen A.J.'s prize book to try to bribe the mother of the child to leave her husband alone. The girl refuses the offer but Maya has defaced the book, so the sister-in-law doesn't return the book to him. Her husband is killed in a car accident and she eventually finds happiness with the local police chief.
Sadly, A.J. is diagnosed with cancer but doesn't feel he can afford the treatment. The missing book suddenly appears and he is able to get surgery but it only gives him a temporary reprieve. The sister and law and her husband buy the bookstore after A.J. dies.
Each chapter of the book makes reference to a piece of literature. After Maya arrives many of the references are addressed to her.
This was a poignant story. Perhaps not a great work of literature, but I enjoyed it.
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