The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry

The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin, 260 pages

I really enjoyed this story. It starts out a little slow but really picks up after the first 30 pages. It really is a story that chronicles part of the life of A. J. Friky, a bookstore owner on Alice Island. It follows him for about twenty years and we really get to see who he is and how he changes through that time. When we meet him, he is a fairly recent widower, having lost his wife in a car accident. She had grown up on the island and brought him back to run the bookstore with her. After she died, he didn’t really feel like he fit in. Soon after the beginning of the story a series of events begin to happen to him; a valuable book is stolen from his home and a baby appears in the store. These two events conspire to change his life. I really liked how everything came together at the end and some loose ends were wrapped up. I’m sure some readers would say it was too pat, but I thought it was great. This was a good adult offering from this mostly YA author.