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

Reviewed by Kristin

Introvert A.J. Fikry runs Island Books out of a cottage on Alice Island. He started the bookstore with his late wife Nic, who he lost suddenly in an automobile accident. The island is a lovely summer getaway and A.J. grudgingly caters to the tourists, but that doesn’t mean he has to be happy about it. He also has advanced degrees in English literature, so he prefers to avoid the dreck that appeals to the masses. Vampires. Ugh. Nic was much better at dealing with popular literature (and people) than A.J.

A.J. is particularly annoyed when a newly hired book sales representative from Knightley Press shows up to present the winter catalog for his perusal. This young woman, Amelia Loman, doesn’t know his tastes or preferences. She tries to talk him into reading a galley of The Late Bloomer, a memoir from an octogenarian man who married late in life and became a widow just two years later. Hmmph. A.J. just throws the copy onto a stack of many other unread advance copies.

Right as A.J. is leaning into his crankiness, someone leaves something in the bookstore, and it changes his life.

I absolutely loved the way this story unfolded. Yes, there were some predictable storylines, but I enjoyed them nonetheless. This is not just a romance, but a story of lives woven together. A.J.’s sister-in-law Ismay, her writer husband Daniel, police chief Lambiase, and others form a community which A.J. comes to realize he is a part of, whether he likes it or not. And Amelia may have been annoying to A.J. at first, but she grows on him.

Throughout are mentions of literature. Tamerlane, Edgar Allan Poe’s first (anonymously) published work, plays a big part as A.J. had discovered a rare copy at an estate sale. Island Books presents a lovely literary backdrop so that the author can title-drop books from The Monster at the End of the book to The Time Traveler’s Wife. After all, it is a very storied life that A.J. is living.

This book came out in 2014 but I just recently discovered Gabrielle Zevin, so I’m catching up. And while writing this, I also discovered that there is a movie version from 2022, so I now have plans for the weekend. Then on to the next Zevin book….