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Gabrielle Zevin

The Collected Works of A.J. Fikry Digital – 13 March 2014

by Gabrielle Zevin (Author)

111 ratings

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A.J. Fikry owns a failing bookshop. His wife has just died, in tragic circumstances. His rare and valuable first edition has been stolen. His life is a wreck.

Amelia is a book rep, with a big heart, and a lonely life.

Maya is the baby left on A.J.'s bookshop floor with a note.

What happens in the bookshop that changes the lives of these seemingly normal but extraordinary characters

This is the story of how unexpected love can rescue you and bring you back to real life, in a world that you won't want to leave, with characters that you will come to love.

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Product details

Digital : 256 pages
ISBN-13 : 978-1405525169
ISBN-10 : 1405525169
Publisher : Little, Brown; 1st edition (13 March 2014)
Language: : English

Customer Reviews:
111 ratings

Product description

Review

Zevin has done something old-fashioned and fairly rare these days. She has written an entertaining novel, modest in its scope, engaging and funny without being cloying or sentimental. On top of all that, it is marvelously optimistic about the future of books and bookstores and the people who love both (Washington Post)

Packed with the love of a life lived around books (Metro)

Book Description

'Delightful! I read [it] in one sitting. This novel has humor, romance, a touch of suspense, but most of all love--love of books and bookish people and, really, all of humanity in its imperfect glory' -Eowyn Ivey, author of The Snow Child

From the Inside Flap

A.J. Fikry owns a failing bookshop. His wife has just died, in tragic circumstances. His rare and valuable first edition has been stolen. His life is a wreck.

Amelia is a book rep, with a big heart and a lonely life

Maya is the baby left on A.J.'s bookshop floor with a note.

What happens in the bookshop that changes the lives of these seemingly normal but extraordinary characters?

This is the story of how unexpected love can rescue you and bring you back to real life, in a world that you won't want to leave, with characters that you will come to love.

From the Back Cover

"Who the hell are you?" A.J. asks the baby.

For no apparent reason, she stops crying and smiles at him. "Maya," she answers.

That was easy, A.J. thinks. "How old are you?" he asks.

Maya holds up two fingers.

"You're two?"

Maya smiles again and holds up her arms to him."

'Delightful! I read [it] in one sitting. This novel has humor, romance, a touch of suspense, but most of all love - love of books and bookish people and, really, all of humanity in its imperfect glory' Eowyn Ivey, author of The Snow Child

'I read this book in one big greedy gulp. A charming and funny love letter to the written word - it will leave you smiling and with a large lump in your throat' Natasha Solomons, bestselling author of Mr Rosenblum's List and The Novel in the Viola

About the Author

Gabrielle Zevin was raised by parents who took her to the library like it was church. She suspects that is why she became a writer. Her career began at age fourteen when an angry letter to her local newspaper about a Guns 'n' Roses concert resulted in a job as a music critic.

Over eight novels for adults and young people, she has written about female soldiers in Iraq, mafia princesses in retro-future New York City, teenage girls in the afterlife, talking dogs, amnesiacs, and the difficulties of loving one person over many years. She is probably best known for her first novel, Elsewhere, which has been translated into 25 languages. She is also the screenwriter of the cult hit Conversations with Other Women.

5 star		58%
4 star		30%
3 star		7%
2 star		3%
1 star		2%

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jdyshw

and had the author completed it once the romance was neatly tied up it would have been fine.

Reviewed in Australia on 29 September 2016

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Grumpy recluse meets idealistic but not conventionally attractive female. Grumpy man adopts baby, reforms, hooks up with dumpy girl,all ends well, This book was pleasant enough at first (once you got over the total improbability of anyone allowing some strange guy custody of a random baby) and the supporting characters enjoyable, and had the author completed it once the romance was neatly tied up it would have been fine. Formulaic but the characters were recognisable and interesting. But she didn't end it and the book dragged on through several unnecessary extra plot resolutions, relationships and deaths... and it got annoying.

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vicster

The joy of reading

Reviewed in Australia on 9 November 2015

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This is a charming novel about the value of books ,book-stores and reading. There is no high drama, suspense or murder plots nor red herrings at each turn rather, the characterisation, family issues and general life battles steadily build into a place in your mind. There is much to find in this book without it shouting its goodness to you.

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Amazon Customer

Fabulous read

Reviewed in Australia on 22 April 2015

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Thoroughly engaging from start to finish. Wonderful storyteller with a fabulous cast of characters that I would happily return to. This is my first encounter with this author's work and after reading ' The Collected Works of A.J. Fikry ' it most certainly won't be my last.

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Kaytee

Oh Yes

Reviewed in Australia on 26 November 2014

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Heard about this book on a book review on a Geelong radio station a few weeks ago and it was everything and more that the reviewer stated. I loved it...

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Suzanne O'Connor

Four Stars

Reviewed in Australia on 17 October 2014

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Great read. Humorous and a really good light read.

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Shelley Sullivan

The collected works of AJ Fikry

Reviewed in Australia on 24 March 2015

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Fabulous read from cover to cover. Enjoyable
The story was simple but held interest until the very end. Nice book.

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julie barnes

Four Stars

Reviewed in Australia on 8 October 2014

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A delight to read

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Sally Howes

A warm and whimsical story

Reviewed in Australia on 29 September 2014

In brief, THE COLLECTED WORKS OF A.J. FIKRY tells the gentle, bookish, funny, and touching tale of A.J., the curmudgeonly owner of Island Books, and the two persons of the female persuasion who turn his quiet life upside down - Amelia, the persistent sales rep from Knightley Press, and Maya, the toddler who is abandoned in Island Books one day and worms and squirms her way into A.J.'s heart and home.

I must admit, I was initially concerned, because I could see that the book had the potential to be either maudlin or cutesy, but the author's skill steers it between these two landmines down the road of "Just plain funny!" instead. The book is full of the best kinds of humor: dark humor, wry humor, ironic humor, nerdy humor. For example, when A.J. first encounters Maya, we are casually told that: "A.J. has never changed a diaper in his life though he is a modestly skilled gift wrapper."

If the reader is a bookworm, A.J.'s penchant for seeing life as the plot of a poorly written novel, for assessing people as cliches of characterization in said poorly written novel, and for judging people based on their literary tastes will feel all too comfortably familiar. At one point, Lambiase, the local policeman, says about A.J. and the people around him, "They're book people, you know." That's why I felt so comfortable ensconcing myself in their world for a while - I'm a book person, too, so I was in the best company possible. These characters understand that: "You know everything you need to know about a person from the answer to the question: What is your favourite book?"

This is the most stridently self-reflexive book I've ever read, almost as if the characters and their story are there primarily to reflect on the writing process, the publishing process, and the reading process. It is a slightly odd feeling to be prompted by the book you're reading to reflect on the fact that you're reading a book! But it is also fun and fascinating to feel that the author is using her own work of fiction to describe what it is like to write and to be published.

The characters, especially A.J. and Maya, are larger than life, and, paradoxically, while they are not exactly realistic, they have a kind of verisimilitude that draws the reader immediately into their lives. I am not a big fan of short stories, but A.J. has convinced me to give them another go. Can there be any greater tribute to a fictional character than to take their advice and act on it even after their story has ended? The mysterious magic of this book even achieves a feat that I have seen equaled nowhere else: Somehow, it manages to turn Google into a character in its own right!

Of all the disarmingly lovable characters in the book, however, Maya is most definitely the most disarming and most lovable of all. She reminds me a little of Turtle in Barbara Kingsolver's THE BEAN TREES - only more so. We are told, for example, that: "The store is fifteen Mayas wide and twenty Mayas long. She knows this because she once spent an afternoon measuring it by laying her body across the room. It is fortunate that it is not more than thirty Mayas long because that is as far as she could count on the day the measurements were taken." The most important things in THE COLLECTED WORKS OF A.J. FIKRY always come back to books, and my favorite description of Maya's relationship with books is no exception: "The first way Maya approaches a book is to smell it. She strips the book of its jacket, then holds it up to her face and wraps the boards around her ears. Books typically smell like Daddy's soap, grass, the sea, the kitchen table and cheese." Maya provides some of the most evocatively moving moments in the book, as well as the funniest. At one point, "despite the fact that A.J. does not believe in God, he closes his eyes and thanks whomever, the higher power, with all his porcupine heart [for Maya]."

The book covers a large swath of time in the life of A.J. Fikry, and the passing of time is a subtle but constant theme in the story, especially concerning the way in which unexpected events are dotted throughout a life to provide turning points that change that life so fundamentally that it is never the same again. Even the most average life is divided into its own unique eras - seasons that pass, never to come again, so that we can look back on them and feel that they were a completely different life belonging to the completely different person we were way back then. About halfway through, the quirkiness and verve of the story does ebb a little and I wondered if it had peaked too early. It is true that toward the end, the story takes on a slightly more serious aspect, but the delicious surprises keep right on coming, in the form of both plot and characters. For example, it is a pleasure to meet A.J.'s mother at this point, a woman who may just be the least stereotypical seventy-year-old in contemporary literature: "She dates some - women and men. She has slipped into bisexuality without needing to make a big thing out of it. She is seventy, and she believes you try new things or you may as well die."

THE COLLECTED WORKS OF A.J. FIKRY has a unique sense of humor; has a unique reverence and affection for books of all kinds; is peopled by not only unique but singular characters; and tackles common themes in the most unique ways. It really is difficult to imagine anyone not finding something to like about this unusual but unassuming little book. I highly and unreservedly recommend this warm and whimsical story to all.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Top reviews from other countries

BookWorm

Pleasurable read with great characters

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 August 2020

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I'm always a bit suspicious of 'feel good' books about grumpy, lonely individuals who through various extraordinary circumstances become a different, better, happier person. There's a lot of them about - some are done well, many are not. From the blurb I had the impression that this book fell into that genre. But whilst it does share some of the features of those types of story, and starts out that way, it does not focus on the individual or end with his change from lonely widow to a more rounded person.

The title character owns a bookshop on an island off the New England coast. He is in his late thirties and drinks too much since the death of his wife in a car accident, and then to cap it all the priceless manuscript he's been planning to sell to fund an early retirement is stolen. One winter evening a small child is abandoned in his shop by a suicidal, bookloving single mother and Fikry, despite his misgivings, decides to take on the little girl rather than abandon her to the state care system. This leads to all sorts of developments in his life and for the people around him - his sister in law and her unfaithful author husband, the local police chief, and a publisher's sales rep who shares his interest in short stories.

Zevin writes incredibly well - she's one of those writers who is easy and pleasurable to read and who can draw you into a story from the very start. The characters are loveable and interesting and the plot works well. It is a tear-jerker, but not in a mawkish or manipulative way. Yes, it's a bit corny, but again it's well enough balanced and skillfully enough executed for that to not be an issue.

If you enjoy stories with great characters that are a pleasure to read (and who wouldn't?!) then this is a great choice. I looked forwards to reading each chapter and wish it could have gone on for longer. Zevin has written a number of books and seems to be an underrated author given how good they are - I hope that more readers will discover these really enjoyable novels.

Jim

A truly beautiful book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 November 2018

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How can a story about the intertwined lives of some ordinary people on an insignificant little town be so powerful?
The writing is exquisite, the plot is intriguing and gripping. But the jewel in the crown is the experience of the joy of Love and the despair of loneliness which is so accurately depicted.

kevin smith

Great tale of human activity and insight....FIVE STARS

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 July 2014

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I love Gabrielle Zevin. Ever since I read Elsewhere I have read every book she has written. Her style is easy to read and you end up wanting to read the next page, then then , then the next. This story has a steady and slower start than here previous books but the story is well crafty and it takes you in, in a cosy way. You won't even realise that you have reached the middle of the book. The story itself (without given too much away) revolves around people. You get to know these people as if they were your friends. The only negative thing was at the end. She told us how the story ended but it went on for about 5 pages too far for me. However, those pages were necessary to wrap things up. It just seemed a bit of an add on when I read it. Fantastic read though from start to finish.

Prati

Amazing book great read so well written!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 November 2020

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Amazing book made me tearup! Very well written and emotionally relatable characters at several levels. I would recommend a read.

Mrs. S. A. Beckett

All I expected and so much more.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 August 2014

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There was so much to enjoy in this book. It put into words just why books are so fulfilling and can be so life changing. I loved the characters and the way they developed, and there was even a little mystery running through it which was eventually solved. I had not expected a love story, yet this is what it is - people falling in love with books and in the process, with each other.
The ending was not 'fairy tale' but real, and somehow satisfying.

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The Collected Works of A.J. Fikry Digital – 13 March 2014

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Book Description

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From the Back Cover

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