The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend

by Katarina Bivald

This book is a gem.  It is the debut novel by a Swedish author. 

The story is about a 28 year old Swedish woman, a bookworm, who has lost her job at a bookstore when it went out of business.  Sara had been sharing letters with an elderly book lover, Amy, in Broken Wheel Iowa.  The letters were largely about books but Amy but also tells Sara about the town.  She invites Sara to come for a visit and Sara decides to take her up on the offer.  What does she have to lose, she has no job and she is a disappointment to her parents.

However, when she arrives in the U.S. Amy isn't there to greet her.  Amy has died.  A neighbour comes to pick her up and she arrives at Amy's house as the funeral gathering is occuring.  She thinks she should leave but the town's people encourage her to stay on, staying at Amy's place.

She agrees to do this and gets to know the half deserted town and its quirky residents.  She is bored just reading and decides to take Amy's large collection of books and set up a bookshop in the store that was once Amy's husband's unsuccessful hardware store.  The husband predeceased Amy.  Sara is convinced that the people in the town aren't readers and she is committed to changing that.  At first people just stand outside and watch her reading inside.  But gradually they come in to talk and eventually borrow or buy a book.

Word of the bookstore spreads to the nearest town Hope and soon the unimaginable happens, people from Hope come to visit/shop in Broken Wheel. Sara's spunk seems to inspire the who town.  The decide to have a fair and a town dance.  They realized that Sara is the reason the town has been reinvigorated and the town's people conspire to have one of the few bachelors in town marry Sara so she can stay in the U.S.    Sara and the young man actually love each other but are afraid to admit it and soon the immigration people arrive in town to investigate whether a marriage of convenience is being planned.

Things all work out well in the end.  A lovely, quirky story.  The author did an amazing job of portraying a down and out American small town and the petty politics, scheming, gossiping, etc. that occurs.