The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
Gabrielle Zevin, 2014
Romance Contemporary fictionPoetry
A bookseller, a lost child, and a life measured in the books we hand to each other. A warm, witty bookseller's world, tender about love and identity, moving at an easy pace with bookish asides.
Feels like tenderness. About love and identity.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy gentle contemporary stories about bookshops, reading lives, and people changed by the books they pass on. If overt sentimentality about reading wears thin for you, the warmth can feel too sweet.
Why read it
It offers a tender, witty look at how books and the people who hand them to us shape a life. A good choice when you want warmth without gloss.
A page from the book
How to say your life is in books without saying it.
The words you can’t find, you borrow.We read to know we’re not alone. We read because we are alone. We read and we are not alone. We are not alone.My life is in these books, he wants to tell her. Read these and know my heart.We are not quite novels.The analogy he is looking for is almost there.We are not quite short stories. At this point, his life is seeming closest to that.In the end, we are collected works. Gabrielle Zevin.Zevin wrote the novel while working as a bookseller and has said the book is a love letter to independent bookshops.
Books that feel like this
More by Gabrielle Zevin
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Gabrielle Zevin, 2022
Two friends make video games across decades, navigating love, grief, and the strange intimacy of play. For anyone who has ever loved a game—or a person—too much.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy gentle contemporary stories about bookshops, reading lives, and people changed by the books they pass on. If overt sentimentality about reading wears thin for you, the warmth can feel too sweet.
- What is The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry like?
- A warm, witty bookseller's world, tender about love and identity, moving at an easy pace with bookish asides. Feels like tenderness. About love and identity.
- What should I read after The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry?
- If you liked The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, try The Cinnamon Bun Book Store (Laurie Gilmore), To Sir Phillip, With Love (Julia Quinn) and Heartstopper (Alice Oseman).
A taste of the feed
The kind of day that makes everyone else restless and you happily indoors.
It was a slow day, bright and sunny, the type of day people wanted to be running around outside, not browsing the shelves of a bookstore. Not that Hazel understood that line of reasoning. She always wanted to be browsing the shelves of a bookstore.
The Cinnamon Bun Book Store · Laurie Gilmore
What if the thing you apologise for is the thing someone loves most?
I always loved everything about you, of course, but for some reason I always found your impatience especially charming. It was never because you wanted more, it was because you wanted everything.
To Sir Phillip, With Love · Julia Quinn
What you cannot know by looking, and what it costs to guess.
You can’t tell whether people are gay by what they look like. And gay or straight aren’t the only two options. Anyway, it’s very rude to speculate about people’s sexuality.
Heartstopper · Alice Oseman
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