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Saturday, July 12, 2014

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikery by Gabrielle Zevin

by:  Gabrielle Zevin
published by:  Algonquin Books
publish date:  April 1, 2014

A. J. Fikry's life is not at all what he expected it to be. His wife has died, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. Slowly but surely, he is isolating himself from all the people of Alice Island. And then a mysterious package appears at the bookstore. It's a small package, but large in weight. It's that unexpected arrival that gives A. J. Fikry the opportunity to make his life over, the ability to see everything anew.

This book was absolutely wonderful.  It had such a magical quality about it.  It reminded me a lot of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.  It had that same sort of lyrical beauty to the writing.

A.J.'s life is in a downward spiral.  Everything is going wrong.  Then a baby is left in his store with a note asking him to please take care of her.  A.J. is the last person that anyone would expect to adopt the girl, but he does.  Once he adopts the girl A.J.'s life changes in completely unexpected ways.

This was one of the best books I've read this year.  I completely loved everything about it.  The audiobook is read by Scott Brick and he does a fabulous job with it.  This is probably weird but I think adult Harry Potter fans would probably really like this book.

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