3 Review(s)

The Collected Works of A. J. Fikry tells the story of a bookstore owner and how he discovers hope in a world which refuses to read anymore. Summary of the Book In a store with the miraculous effluence of books all around, their words prancing from page to page and seducing readers and book lovers to read them, waits an irascible old man who refuses to believe there is hope in a world which doesn't read any longer. His wife has died, and his book store barely sells anything any longer. His prized collection, a rare collection of poems by Edgar Allan Poe, has been stolen. It feels like A. J. Fikry finds bad luck wherever he turns. He retreats from the other people at Alice Island, and isolates himself mentally. Lambiase, the policeman who has always felt sympathetic towards Fikry doesn't know why. Ismay, Fikry's sister-in-law, only wishes to save him from his dreary self, and Amelia, a pretty, idealistic and a little eccentric Knightley Press sales representative rides the ferry constantly to come to Alice Island just for A. J., despite his bad attitude. His books themselves seem dreary to him, and the world has lost the scent of old books, and the promise of an old favourite seems a lie. When a mysterious package arrives at A. J.'s doorstep, he begins to see life anew and smell the pages once again. Sold as the Storied Life of A. J. Fikry, this book returns readers to a simple time, when all that a plot needs to keep a reader reading is the good hearted promise of fulfilled wishes, a cup of coffee steaming by the window-sill, and the sound of a paper freshly turned, never read before, holding all the wonder and seduction of an unread book. About Gabrielle Zevin Gabrielle Zevin is an American novelist and screenwriter. A Harvard graduate, she has also written: Elsewhere, The Hole We're In, Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, Margarettown, Because It Is My Blood and All These Things I've Done. She also wrote the screenplay for Conversations with Other Women which starred Helena Bonham Carter and Aaron Eckhart and was directed by Hans Canosa, and was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay. She has won a 2006 Quill Award, the Borders Original Voices Award, and Elsewhere made the Carnegie long list.