Just as some people have their “summer reading”, those books that are immediately identified as being perfect for the beach or by the pool, I find there are books which say “winter” or “wet afternoon”: these are the kind of books you want to curl up with in front of a fire, clutching a glass of Shiraz. The Collected Works of A.J.Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin (released in America as The storied life of A.J. Fikry), is one of those books. It is sentimental (OK, a bit mushy) but ultimately charming.
A.J. Fikry is the staid and slightly uptight owner of Island Books, the less than imaginatively named bookshop on Alice Island, off fashionable Hyannis, in Massachusetts. It’s highly dependent on the annual summer influx of well-heeled tourists. Fikry has retreated further into his shell after the death of his wife,